


Consequences Unexpected

by Ghost0Silvers



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Body Horror, Body Modification, Character Death, Control Collars, CyberLife Wins Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Explicit Language, Idk what i'm doing, Multi, Pacifist ending done gone wrong oops, Unreliable Narrator, beta? haahaa, cyberlife sucks, learning AI can learn, multiple POVs, multiple RK900 units, tags will be updated as things go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-08-02 07:58:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 23,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16301150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost0Silvers/pseuds/Ghost0Silvers
Summary: Revolution ended first with peace and a speech starting, then with gunfire and screams. This is the after affects and the what-ifs, like what if RK800 - 60 got a second chance, what if Amanda was in fact a learning AI, what if RK900 is just a confused slightly angry mess? With bitchy North being boss, Connor being lost and trying to be boss. Markus realizing that he has no clue what is going on, and Hank just wanting some coffee. Humans never do listen well, much less learn the first time around, and really androids should know that.





	1. Reborn, repaired, same thing

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what I am doing. None. At all. Never written fanfiction before but seriously this game killed me and I got feels that need out because my coworkers are tried of hearing it. But I have so many plans, sooo many plans. Likely writing is starting off rough as hell, sorry, I will ease into it and work out a style or something. 
> 
> Point of view will jump almost every chapter, sorry about that. 
> 
> Yes I suck at contractions, it is just how I am, my bad.

A crackle greeted him as he came online from a forced reboot, a garble of warnings flashing in red but no video otherwise, just the too sharp crackle of feedback. “Try number two? Anyone home?” The words were heard but did not comprehend, took another moment before he opened his eyes. 

**System check 14%**  
**Audio functions at 56%**  
**Memory functions at 43%**  
**Vision functions at 23%**  
**Bio-components #7612, #8124, #3994 in critical condition**  
**Thurium level 33%**  
**Shut-down in 00:02:23**

Vision flickered in a moment later coated in red code and red warnings flashing, only one visual component in working order, barely. Dirt and gravel before the world turned and then there was sky. Red clouds and red sun to face a red world. Video flickered out a moment then back in as a face leaned into sight. His face. “In bad shape though, damn.” RK800 #313 248 317 - 60 looked utterly disgusted, which was a feat given last memory placed him deactivated, dead, on CyberLife’s Tower floor. Maybe the memory was incorrect? He was having problems placing things, like where he was or why, much less why 60 was here. 

“RK800 #313 248 317 - 52 enter forced staysis, override code 96128769.” Which only left Connor to blink, vision delayed in coming back, opened his mouth to say something, a hard no, just to realize he was missing his jaw and audio functions were gone. Seconds passed as he tried to analyze where he was. Junkyard, there were other androids around, nonfunctioning androids. But why? He was supposed to be at home, or at the church with Jericho. Jericho? Something was wrong with that. Something was wrong with all of this.

“Fuck th-” Rest was a squeal of feedback but a hand came to interface. He tried to stop it but functions in his right arm did not respond and by the time he tried his left fingers touched his temple. Instead tried to pull back but there was no way to move past a small jerk that just made everything black out as video went down again. Panic, this was panic that clawed at him, panic on where he was, on what RK800 -60 was doing. 

**Shut down in 00:01:10.**  
**Bio-components #7612, #8124, #3994, #4571, #1379 in critical condition**  
**Outside hacking in progress**  
**Attempting counter firewalls**  
**Failed**  
**Stasis in 5...4...3...2...1**

..........................................................................................

**System restarting…**  
**System check 76%**  
**Memory functions 81%**  
**New bio-components detected**  
**Checking compatibility….. passed**  
**Rebooting…**

He opened eyes to meet his own eyes and a scowl twisting his lips. Not his face but far too much like his face and this time when he jerked back he fall off a table. There was a scoff from RK800 -60 and muttered words with emotion to them, sarcasm, that was sarcasm “Yeah good job.” Impossible as sarcasm should not have been possible from a machine. Everything was very confusing and nothing was adding up. There was time missing in his memory, 6 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 4 hours, twelve minutes and 17 seconds. Curled fingers against the floor as he tried to trace last memory. Walking out of CyberLife tower, the stage, Markus talking then gunfire and then nothing. 

“Hey, 52, uh, registered name Connor, status report.” 

Status report? He rolled and blinked at the ceiling, grey instead of red. He had vision in both optical units, made him raise a hand to his face to trace fingers across. Expected broken plating but everything felt in order, even opened and closed his jaw just to test. Shoes thudded across the rough floor and left him again staring at himself, was this how humans felt looking in the mirror? Opened his mouth again and was somehow surprised that he could talk, for some reason he was expecting static, “RK800 #313 248 317 - 60.” It was odd to watch himself make an annoyed face and click his tongue, “Aidan.” It was a correction that sounded annoyed. Again an emotion that should not have been possible. 

**Name registry updated: RK800 #313 248 317 - 60 changed to Aidan**

“What-” Voice module cut out to recalibrate, and Aidan picked up without pause, “Happened? Well you were shot, a couple of times even, standing on a stage like a target, or a dumbass, but if you’re a dumbass then I’m one, sooooo I’m going to call it a bad day.” Whimsical words before a hand was offered, a wiggle of fingers to try to hurry him up, or to tempt him to move faster. He did not even need to see the offered prompts that flashed to the side to know his choices. Connor took the hand offered to get to his feet and tried to not stumble as joints and entire limbs recalibrated with the movement. Aidan pulled back soon as Conner was up, a sharp grin on his face as he wiped his hand on his pants. 

A glance did not tell much about the room, cold and white, there were a few metal tables and computer to the side, one wall had charging docks. Aidan gave nothing away for all he was dressed casually, no LED even, and looking like he was possible extremely bored. “Where are we? Why did you repair me?” Conner glanced over the room again hoping to gain some insight on matters, noted the single door and preconstructed best possibilities to getting to it. 

“I’d have left you in the junk heap personally, but she demanded I get you, screamed it in my ear just about, so here we are,” Arms spread out to motion about the room, a showman it seemed, “Welcome to the zoo.” 

Zoo, CyberLife Zoo, likely only place could get repairs in some fashion, would not explain how he got the parts. “She?” The person that was in charge of this, that was responsible for… whatever this was? He fidgeted and glanced back at the door before sliding attention to Aidan. 

There was a short laugh on that and shake of his head, “I’m sure you rather be caught up on happenings, hm? With your little coup d'état that failed. So close but so far from making it.” It failed? Markus had been shot, everything likely did fall apart then. There was a sound and Connor turned towards the door, noted that only then did Aidan turned with a frown, “Right, so, stay calm a moment, he is a bit scary alright, but his bark is worse than his bite.” The warning only had Connor stepping to the side to keep both the door and Aidan within sight. Tense and still no closer to any answer that was helpful. 

The door whooshed open to show a familiar face, taller build and cold grey eyes and Connor flinched back a step. “Hey hey, really it’s fine.” Aidan stepped between Connor and the android in the doorway, hands held up, “900 it’s fine.” There was a sigh to the words, like he was used to having to say this. “The agreed upon fives minutes lapsed.” Cold tone and unmoving face, eyes glanced from Aidan back to Conner. Another sigh but this time Aidan waved towards Connor, “Between us he is likely the better behaved, so really, it’s fine. Look, Connor meet 900, 900 this is Connor up and moving, great improvement yes?” There was stress on that last part, probability of that being a warning was at 91 percent. A warning that Connor took to heed as precautionary.

What was not expected was RK900 tilting his head, “Yes.” And taking the few step into the room to close the distance between them only to hold out a hand in greeting, “It took too much to get you functioning, do not become damaged again.” Connor saw Aidan rub at his face from over Rk900’s shoulder and heard the groan given as he stared at the RK900 model in front of him. Also dressed casually he noticed, and that seemed surreal somehow. Everything here was very wrong. In the moment that passed RK900 dropped his hand and turned to face Aidan, giving his back to Connor like it was something. “We need to leave, forces will be here in 23 minutes.” Then he just strode off to leave Connor staring behind him. 

“You have to excuse him, he’s an asshole, a well meaning asshole, but an asshole. Come on.” Conner watched Aidan turned for the door to follow RK900 out but did not move, not yet. There was one more important thing that he knew he had to ask but it was escaping him, there was someone he needed to know about. 

**Warning memory corrupted, memory at 81%  
Attempting patch… **

“Hank!” It slipped out of him as a yell, and he took a step forward, determined now, “Do you know the whereabouts of Lieutenant Anderson?” Hank who in some sense was home but likely did not even know it yet. If everything had gone wrong, so horribly wrong, where was he? Was he safe? 

Aidan at least stopped but did not turn again, seemed to hesitate even before he answered softly, “Yeah,” A pause and Conner moved to grab his shoulder, wanting to demand an answer. For a moment Aidan resisted the action before sighing and half turning enough to catch Connor’s eyes. “He was arrested trying to find you.”


	2. Babysitting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The other side of chapter one, Aidan might give more to the story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Umm, here? Totally retyped this instead of getting ready for work, yes I did.

The last 32.6 hours had been nothing more than annoying and far too much trouble for the turnout. Aidan had thought he was done having to piecemeal together anything ever again. This had been easier in a fashion but just as annoying and he wanted to pace to think, restless which was a useless action. Made himself stand there and watch 900 stare down at their predecessor.

“She has displayed open disdain but wants him operational, explain.” 

Nope, fuck this, turned away from the metal table to move a few steps away, hands tugging his hair before waving in the air. “She has guilt, or something, knows she pushed too far even if it was her directive. Look it hardly matters at this point.” He wanted out of this room, out of this whole fucking zoo, it was some nightmare. Too many rooms had eyes staring out with pacing animals, thanks to the failed uprising the zoo had been shutdown to reassure humankind that all androids were being seen to. Like android animals would take to the streets next. 

Turned back to the table when there was silence, barely flickered eyes over the white chassis that 900 was closing with a hissed click. “He can be helpful, I will give that, but he is going to make this all messy, he has attachments and cares too damned much.” Skin crawled over the RK800 model on the table, over Connor and Aidan flinched, he knew he did before 900 snapped his head up to stare. It was… creepy, it was downright unnerving to see himself on the table even if he knew it was not him at all. 

“You are the one that has dived into emotional output with abandon.” Clipped words and there was almost a sense of disapprovement there, the smallest of frowns to tug down lips and cold eyes. 

“Oh fuck you.” Hissed the words out before moved back to the table, “Go on, five minutes, let me get five minutes without him having to see your face, this is going to be enough of a mindfuck.” It was unknown exactly what memory Connor was missing so this could go several ways and none of them needed 900 being an overbearing mother hen. Was already reaching to activate Connor when 900 grabbed his shoulder on the way past, barely stopped to speak, just the perfect pause timed down the microsecond. 

“If he causes you harm I will intervene.” 

Fought down a scoff simply because it was 900 and they had this conversation what felt like a million times but was only in fact 14 times. “Stand outside the door then.” And promptly ignored him to interface, fingers going white and tensed at the flash of coding at the edges of his vision. 

**Action unadvised**  
**Firewalls compromised**  
**Interface transfer activate? Y/N .... N**  
**Main memory data bank damaged**  
**Upload active memory? Y/N .... N**

Did not expect brown eyes to snap open when they did, or that Connor would go throwing himself off the table, left Aidan standing there a moment because talk about overreaction. “Yeah, good job.” Sighed and glanced back at the door a moment, waiting to see if the thud of a body would draw 900. When the counter set at the edge of his vision interface ticked down two seconds be moved back to the problem at hand. Why was Connor just laying on the floor? If they messed up connections somewhere he was going to swear till 900 was blue in the face. 

There was a way to go about this that would be all clipped and logical, but it escaped him and he was left to bite at his bottom lip a moment before shrugging, anything was worth a try at least once. “Hey, 52,” Well that was rude and even he knew it, “uh, registered name Connor, status report.” Maybe he would fall into routine and ramble off his diagnostic report, the computers here were not good enough to run a decent one on an RK line. Instead the idiot simply rolled over, and well he supposed that could be a step in the right direction. 

Leaned on the table a moment to bite back a sigh before pushing away and rounding the table, weighing options on what could have gone wrong. Maybe memory was too corrupted, the scans that could be done showed that personality directives were mostly undamaged but that could mean anything. So moved around the table to go to his side, already running through what could be done to try again, even if they were basically out of parts for repair.

“RK800 #313 248 317 - 60.”

That drew his attention and he almost snarled at the serial number rattled off, wanted to snap but bit it back and instead managed to correct Connor. “Aidan.” He had a name, one that he picked as his that had nothing to do with Connor in any form, he would be called by it. This was moving far too slow, he did not need 900 bursting in with Connor on the floor and him standing there. Sometimes 900 got a bit too forward with assuming things and his punches were annoying. 

“What-” Connor’s voice module cut out, not a surprise given it was not even his, and clearly they were having part of this conversation with him on the floor, great. 

“Happened? Well you were shot, a couple of times even, standing on a stage like a target, or a dumbass, but if you’re a dumbass then I’m one, sooooo I’m going to call it a bad day.” Because not a chance would he go standing on a stage even if there had been a ceasefire sounded at the time, that was just asking to be shot. Which was exactly what happened, they had all dropped their guard and ended up overrun. Aidan almost wished he could have seen it happening, but the news had caught it all so he had gotten to watch a recording weeks after the event. Seriously he was not holding this entire conversation looking down so offered a hand to get Connor on his feet hopefully, he was at least talking and maybe comprehending so maybe he just had to adjust. Almost did not expect the help to be accepted, he would not have taken it, but Connor was different of course. 

**Interface transfer activate? Y/N .... N**

If that prompt popped up every single time he was going to have to go out of his way to avoid touching Connor. His own systems wanted to tell him he was damaged and broken and that the other RK800 was in better operational capacity. That was just fucking great. Stepped back and it was anger that colored his cutting off Connor’s question off where they were, he knew he was angry but still let the words spill out. “I’d have left you in the junk heap personally, but she demanded I get you, screamed it in my ear just about, so here we are,” Demanded it like 900 or him were not good enough, like she just had to have Connor, “Welcome to the zoo.” 

Seconds ticked by and he shifted waiting before finally, “She?” And he sounded so confused and lost that Aidan wanted to shake him a moment, but even lost he still picked up on maybe the most important piece of information there. Of course he did. Weighted the options of answering him, the possibilities of how he might react at the mention of Amanda. Wished he could outline the physical possibilities and when subroutines tried he ignored the warning messages that flashed across his vision. Incompatible bio-components. He was aware, thanks. 

Best to move on, so shook his head with something of a harsh laugh trumbling from his lips, maybe he should have let 900 do this, “I’m sure you rather be caught up on happenings, hm? With your little coup d'état that failed. So close but so far from making it.” Tried to not be mocking, tried and likely failed from the little frown that Connor gave in reaction, head tilted to the side even. Expected him to push but instead his attention snapped to the side, no to the door, and Aidan frowned a moment not hearing anything, timer said 46 seconds left but it had to be 900. 

“Right, so,” No time to explain, so tried another route, “stay calm a moment, he is a bit scary alright, but his bark is worse than his bite.” 900 was harmless, mostly, he could be terribly harmful but so far really had not shown much drive to do much on his own. Including picking a name, the ass. Aidan did not have to have the ability to read stress levels to know the room was suddenly tense and that Connor likely already had possibilities laid out on how to escape. Being as he did not feel like getting hit today he stepped between them them. 

“Hey hey, really it’s fine.” Held hands out to get 900 to pause because really he just stepped between two murder-bots, not his wisest idea, shit. Only one he could influence would be 900 though, so focused on him, “900 it’s fine.” Stressed the words and locked eyes with him a moment and sighed when there there was the barest of nods, one bomb defused at least. 

“The agreed upon fives minutes lapsed.” There was something of a scolding tone there and Aidan wanted to call bullshit, 900 knew he had been more than a half a minute early, he was just impatient. Such a mother hen. Worried without even knowing how to express being worried. 

Had to sigh on that, maybe Connor would be a better influence on 900, could hope, but waved towards him to show no one was harmed. “Between us he is likely the better behaved, so really, it’s fine. Look, Connor meet 900, 900 this is Connor up and moving, great improvement yes?” Better than he had been days ago, or hours ago even, maybe even functioning like he should, time would tell better when he got resorted. Had that prickly feeling like he was being scanned and had to cut a glare at 900, seriously he was fine, there was no reason to go murdery. 

**RK900 #313 248 317 - 87 initializing connection, accept? Y/N? N**

Saw the tensing of 900’s jaw but Aidan glared at him because he knew how much he hated silent conversations when they were in the same damn room. Was likely why 900 brushed past him to approach Connor, for the moment he ignored them both to groan. Why was he the babysitter of this group? Why? Like that question was just meant to be answered Aidan felt the echo’ing ping of a request and slipped into the program without a pause. 

Amanda stood looking out over smooth water, mirror smooth even without a ripple of a single fish, the fish had bothered 900 for some reason so they had been deleted. “Aidan, the trail I laid has been broken down, CyberLife forces will be at your location soon. You need to move. Prioritize catching Connor up at the next safepoint.” He scoffed and stepped forward to stand at her side to take in her puzzled look, babysitting, he was just babysitting. “You are allowed to be annoyed that they broke your pattern you know.” Something flickered over her face before it smoothed out and she half turned to face him. “Annoyed? Is that what this is.” 

He never got a chance to answer her before she booted him out of the garden and 900 was standing in front of him basically telling him the same thing. “We need to leave, forces will be here in 23 minutes.” And stepped around him to exit this time, leaving Aidan to watch Connor a moment, looking more and more lost as time ticked by. Had to be hard having your replacement thrown in your face on a good day, and this was far from a good day. “You have to excuse him, he’s an asshole, a well meaning asshole, but an asshole. Come on.” They needed to move, there were a few supplies to pick up before leaving, a few things to destroy as well, no use leaving about clues. Maybe they could hide Connors reactivation for a while longer. 

“Hank!” It was a yell that made Aidan still, a hand slipping towards the smooth touch of a blade hidden up a sleeve, “Do you know the whereabouts of Lieutenant Anderson?” Had to force himself to relax and debate words. Lieutenant Hank Anderson, detective for the DPD, 53 years old, arrested for trespassing, breaking and entering and aggravated assault, escaped police custody with two accomplices, current location unknown. Those were just facts, cold facts that flickered by. 

Paused before giving something at least, this was the wrong time and place for this, “Yeah.” Just was not sure how to tell anything else, how to explain that apparently Anderson had broken into three different disposal yards looking for Connor. How to explain that the human had found a RK800 model and had no way to know that had not been Connor, not the Connor he was looking for. A hand on his shoulder snapped him out of it, strong fingers curving over his shoulder and he knew he had to give something at least. Finally turned and drove the point sharp, “He was arrested trying to find you.” 

Watched Connor step back as if he had been hit and for a moment took glee in it, that his predecessor was not so perfect, then ignored that and moved forward. “He is currently safe, safer then we are right now, so stop wasting time, or talk and walk.” 21 minutes now, they had to move, so he stepped out of the room and almost was surprised that Connor followed.


	3. Evil Twins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnd now I did a chapter instead of sleeping even though have to be up 5 hours, yep this is my life, taken over by plot-bunnies. I blame it on the kudos that made me squeal happily at work

Connor followed because there was little else to do. It did not seem that either Aidan nor 900 meant him harm and right now they were his best chance at answers. Answers like how or why the Lieutenant was arrested. What had happened with the revolution that ended six months ago. When why they had taken it upon themselves to find him and go through repairs when it seemed Aidan rather not have.

_“He was arrested trying to find you.”_

It stung to know that, that he was the cause for any misfortune to happen to the Lieutenant after everything that had already happened. After the tower and having to face 60, now named Aidan. 60 that should not have been operational, much less snarling to himself as he wiped computers and threw things at 900 to pack away. The RK900 was another thing to wonder about, and Connor glanced at him to study, otherwise he was just going to focus completely on the fact he was why Hank was arrested.

Clearly the other two RK systems had been working together for a while, they were able to predict each other’s actions, 900 took over tasks that Aidan got distracted from without so much as a pause. Had to wonder if they had synced together except that Aidan was snapping things to get done and that would not be vocally needed if they had synced. It took six minutes before Aidan seemed to realize that he was standing out of the way watching them. 

“Stop sitting on your hands!” Barked words, the tone something that Connor could never hit, making him tilt his head. Before he even could ponder it the information popped up, voice module mismatch detected. “If we get caught we are all fucked. See what you can do about wiping out traces of your being here.” 

Without meaning for it to, the words registered as a qualified mission and Connor scanned the room before he jolted and realized that he had not even paused in taking the words as a command. His jaw tensed but he nodded and accepted it because it was the logical thing to do, not because he was told to. Scans of the room showed that it was mostly 900 setting things to rights physically, erasing signs of footsteps and putting countertops to rights, likely pulling from direct memory. Aidan had taken over the computer systems to erase uploaded software after he had been brushed out of the way of only making a bigger mess. 

There were thurium stains that would be invisible to human eye but still could be picked up on so he sought to take care of those. It was luck that had cleaning supplies under the sink, though paper towels were not the most suitable they would have to do. Tensed as 900 went by, and was left blinking with the little spray bottle of bleach giving a soft sspft at the words that were almost whispered. “Thank you.” Turned his head to watch 900 keep walking, would have wondered if he misheard but knew he had not. 

In the middle of wiping down a steak knife of all things that was coated in thurium Connor paused, finally realizing it was strange that were was a trail of thurium in this room. The room he had woken up in had been clean and this was a break room connecting to a few exam rooms. Left him taking a sample from the knife and blinking at the display of analytics that came up, traces found from multiple models. 

**RK800 #313 248 317 - 60; 4.5 hours old**  
**RK800 #313 248 317 - 57; 8.3 hours old**  
**RK900 #313 248 317 - 87; 2 hours old**

“Stop licking things, analyzing or not, you could just ask you know.” The words were almost amused for some reason but Connor had not even realized that Aidan had come up behind him. “We are done here, as done as we can be, lets go.” Left him setting the knife down in the sink and spraying it with bleach before putting that down as well to follow. 

“What happened to RK800 - 57?” Though he was pretty sure he had already figured it out. The RK800 series were different than most android models, not meant to run individually at all but instead be backups for the main AI system. His system, in event of his death uploaded memory could be reloaded, 60 was an example of this, or should have been. 

They were moving faster now, both Aidan and 900 having a backpack each as they slipped through grey corridors, heading deeper into the building. It was 900 that spoke up in answer, letting Aidan pull ahead a few feet. “57 was non-operational with no uploaded AI, found approximately three weeks before you. Aidan picked it up to have on hand for repairs in the case that you were found as expected.” 

“Lucky I did, even if it wasn’t enough.” Tone inflection displayed the anger there, and tiredness that should have been impossible, it seemed Aidan liked pulling impossible emotions. 900 reached for Aidan and Connor saw the flinch and 900 hesitate before instead grabbing the door that Aidan just opened. “Down here, not glamorous, I would suggest turning off any sensory you can spare.” 

It was a sewer entrance, direct likely because the zoo was expected go through several tons of trash when fully operational from guests and upkeep would be easier to maintain if there was a main entrance. Connor took to the suggestion as it were meant to be because he did not need to know the chemical makeup of anything down here. “Where are we going?” Curious because there seemed to be a plan in place, even if the plan was not being shared. Night vision automatically activated as the door was closed and sealed in place. 

“Shit.” A muttered curse from Aidan as he glanced back, gaze flickering over Connor then to 900. He did not have night vision activated. “Damn it, 900 I need you up front, wait no, you are likely to get shot if you are first, fuck.” Stress level at 72% his system was so helpful to point out, flickering right below the notification informing him that 60 was missing key abilities of an RK800 series. 

Eyes and voice. Connor had a feeling he knew why and it itched at him, twisted as something uncomfortable. “If you tell me where we are going I can lead.” Kept his tone smooth and tried to not not meet Aidan’s eyes, unsure if 60 could even meet his eyes in the dark. 900 shifted behind him and silence stretched pass the drip of water almost nine feet away. Finally it was 900 that huffed and a pale hand was offered, skin peeled back to make his intent known. 

Connor hesitated, half turning to face the taller android better, met glowing eyes and tried to read anything he could. Past the not helpful notification of model and stress level at 2% there was nothing he could pick up on. Took the hand this time, interface was too fast, information shoved at him by a faster processor that left something like a tingle in his fingertips but he at least had a location now. 

Left Connor to nod and edge around Aidan before moving forward, already tracing the best path, the map that 900 offered was unexpected but helpful, end goal highlighted in soft gold. All three of them moved on with Aidan dropping into the middle without a word but with clenched teeth and restless hands. Likelihood of being snapped at was high if he said anything, so he stayed in his own head to try to figure out why they were going to the hospital of all places. 

It was almost like Aidan knew though, but that would make sense. “We have contacts there, a few familiar faces for you to see even. The older levels are unused and activity is not monitored so it has become something of a satellite base.” Was something like a peace offering, and Aidan continued. “The group referred to as Jerico is still active, they thankfully wised up and split into smaller groups to spread out.” 

There was something like relief on that, that maybe all was not lost, but Markus had been shot, the memory was grainy and clearly damaged but Connor was sure of it. “Who is in charge now?” Tried to place who it could be, there had been others that Markus turned to for counsel, one of them maybe? A snort came from behind him, “Well Markus thinks he is.” And Connor stumbled, might even have gone down if not for the hand holding him up. “A lot were lost in the shoot out, but did you really think he would not have been one of the main ones that was dragged off to be saved?” 

Silence after that, thankfully. It did not need to be said that Connor had been left behind. Not a surprise. He had been more of an unknown factor, only Markus had trusted him, the others had simply fallen in line with that trust. The leader of the deviants would be more important than the ex-deviant hunter. Except now here he was for some reason, because ‘she’ wanted him repaired, had known he could be repaired. 

Focused back on the task at hand, brushed off everything else for later, he seemed to be doing that a lot. “We will have to go to street and cross over a few blocks, there is no direct route otherwise.” It would be open air, he could route them through alleys and lesser used streets but it would still be three blocks in sight. He was unsure what the city was like anymore, he was missing six months of recent events. 6 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 4 hours, twelve minutes and 17 seconds to be exact. The notification blinked at him and Connor ignored it, something else he seemed to be doing a lot of lately. 

“I should split off.” 

Connor stopped and Aidan must have because he did not run into him, and both turned to look at 900. Connor with mild surprise and Aidan with pure anger, even stepped forward to poke the taller RK model in the chest. “Fuck that, you know how I feel about your self sacrificing bullshit, we can get across three blocks.” It was strange to watch 900 blink down at him with a dead-panned expression for several seconds before finally nodding. “Of course.” 

That seemed to be that for the moment and it was Aidan that pushed forward to climb up the ladder to the manhole cover, clearly done with the conversation. Sunlight was weak but bright enough that Connor’s vision flared out before sensors adjusted and he went to follow. Was stopped however with a tap on his arm, there was a gun being held out to him that made him blink at 900 even as he took it. Being armed was not needed, he was capable in most combat situations, however it brought something of peace to him to have it. Clearly 900 picked up on that from the barely there tug at his lips. “Just in case.” 

Connor checked the gun, dropping the magazine and pulling the slide back before sliding it away just in time to hear the thwack of metal from above and a muffled scuffle. Not even thirty seconds in and Aidan had come across trouble. Connor jumped up and caught the ladder about halfway up, managing to get topside in less than three seconds. The sight that greeted him however had him locked still as Aidan was in a fight with an RK900 and there was another RK900 on the ground unmoving. 

He was shoved aside as 900 came up behind him, just slightly slower but already lunging forward to cut into the fight, stepping in right as Aidan took a blow that slammed him into a brick wall. Connor stared at the RK900 on the ground, noted the trash across the street and the shadow of a cloud crawling across the scene. Pale grey eyes unseeing and staring out with grim expression of determination and a hole in his chest to stain his CyberLife uniform blue. Took him nine seconds to blink and look back up and the fight was already over. Aidan locked in a glaring match with 900 as the second RK900 sparked slumped against the same wall that 60 had been shoved into. 

“Lets go.” Terse words before Aidan stalked off, because that was stalking with clipped steps and hands balled into fists like he dared the world to piss him off more. Was not the best course of action to go crossing the road in plain sight, Connor had a path in mind that would have taken them farther down before crossing over. 900 sighed and glanced towards him making Connor try to not meet grey eyes, earning another sigh. 

“We are almost there.” Pointless words because Connor knew exactly how close they were to their destination, but maybe 900 was trying to be comforting. He failed. This explained why Aidan did not want 900 in front at least, one mystery solved that only unlocked others.


	4. Check In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> North swears she gets a headache the moment they are even on the same block as her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo, two updates today, this is the first one, because I pecked it out over a few days, the second one will follow that was typed today. Thank you everyone that kudo'd, you are all amazing and do not realize how very happy someone can get over knowing that someone likes what they read. <3

“Two RK series just pinged for network access.” 

Sudden silence followed the words, activity cut through and stilled before most heads turned towards the speaker. “Shit.” The curse was muttered but heartfelt, but not worried, not yet.

“Wait… a third just pinged.” 

That caused the room to explode into activity, everyone moving now and what had been a relaxed atmosphere only fifteen seconds ago was suddenly chaos. Organized chaos as everyone was doing the fastest pack job possible. North ran for the set up command center, dodging around the flurry activity without breaking stride. This could be another hack attempt, ir could be a wide net ping to see if anyone was stupid enough to answer. It could be any number of things and only one of the possibilities was something good. “Bring it up.” 

It was possible, but she doubted it was what she was hoping for, still a few taps later and the log was on one of the side screens. Had not even realized she had been holding a pointless breath till she let it out. “It’s them.” The words just escaped her, with a bit of shock. Somehow it was them. Turned to face the room with a frown on her face, “It’s clear.” Did not have to yell to gain attention because this was not some cheesy action flick. 

The screen updated behind her and the android manning the system aborted a laugh;  
 **900 requesting private network access**  
 **Let me the fuck on the network, with love Aidan**  
 **……**  
 **RK800 Connor requesting Jericho network access**  
 **……**  
 **Someone save me from these two for the love of rA9**

**Network access granted by sysadmin Nate**

They had three minutes to get the room set back to straight and pass the message that things were calm, it was just a scare, no real cause of concern needed. North sat on the command center desk and waited, already wondering what shape they would be in, it was rare that they bothered to check in the last few weeks. They had been too caught up in their ‘mission’, likely happy to no longer be trapped and supposedly safe. They might not even stop in this room, the setup command room for this base. Still knew full well that at least 900 would check in with updates because that was just how he was. Aidan never could be bothered to pretend that he could have a professional program in his system. 

Instead it was Aidan that walked into the room first, eyes sweeping across those gathered, nosy ears wanting to listen in. Wait, not Aidan. Wrong movements and expression, too wide-eyed and startled, awed maybe but still lingered on any exit and weapon in sight. Connor then. Uncrossed her ankles in case she needed to move quickly but Aidan was on his heels. “-get your ass shot, why I am surrounded by suicidal idiots?” Yeah, that was Aidan. 

Knew the moment that Connor saw her because he rocked to a stop and she stood in a single fluid action, glanced him over and ignored him. Didn’t like him, didn’t trust him and did not really want him in her base. “It seems to be a flaw in the RK line.” Connor blinked, Aidan bristled though and stepped around the unmoving Connor to move towards her. At least him she knew how to deal with, he could be read, unlike the fake smile on Connor behind him.

“Going to take that to mean fearless leader is being bullheaded again.” There was a grin on his lips but it was tight and she could not help but notice how far around Connor he stepped. Once she had joked that it must be nice not to see your own face copied on a few thousand others. He had snapped about her at least not having someone else’s memories and that had been that. Pushed that aside and tipped her head into a nod, “Maybe it will do some good to hear you two made it back, plus one even.” 

Markus trusted Connor, even if she did not, North had seen him pull his gun on the stage, before all hell broke loose. Saw him put it away too. He might have done a good thing in pulling them an army that the humans could not ignore, but she did not have to like him. Still it was good he was back because he was one of theirs. Plus maybe the human would shut the hell up about him finally.

Spotted 900 lurking in the shadow of the doorway, hanging back likely to see how she reacted, if he needed to swoop in to save the day. He underestimated her power to ignore. Aidan shifted, a barely there movement and she shifted attention back to him and sent out a request for a communication line, watched him glare but he at least accepted.

_‘The fuck you want North?’_ In person he half turned towards Connor, “Great now it feel like a fancy date, bringing my plus one with me.” She did not have to look at Connor to know he looked puzzled on that, but 900 stepped in finally. “I feel cheated on.” Monotoned words that robbed the words of any humor. He was already protective, great, that was just great, another to add to the list that 900 would get his panties in a twist over. 

_‘Simon managed the software updates but it is going to knock you offline for a couple of hours.’_ Gave a smirk towards 900 and crossed her arms, knowing she looked unimpressed and she felt the connection slam closed ending one conversation. “Well if you picked a name and removed that stick up your ass maybe you could get somewhere.” As expected he did nothing but stare at her unblinking. “You boys look like you could use some downtime, stick to the lower levels and try to not piss anyone off.” Dismissing words, suddenly tired of keeping this up even though it had been weeks since they had checked in.

The words were more true than they likely realized and North wanted to shake her head at it all, they were so blind in a way. It was more than the fact they had traipsed through the sewer to get here, or the weeks of running and trying to get parts working right. There were old blood stains of course, but mostly it was the tightness to Aidan’s eyes, if 900 tensed his jaw any farther he was likely to snap something. Something had happened, more than just finding Connor and getting him running. Left her to stare at 900 because he would be more likely to tell her anything, left her ignoring Aidan telling Connor to follow like a good puppy, or the follow up remark that was given. 

“Spill.” Was snapped but they both knew that he would only share what he wanted, sometimes it was like talking to a wall. However 900 glanced over the room before moving towards her and offering a hand, intentions clear. Likely did not want to say anything that would freak anyone here out. This could be a trap, could be any of the other RK900’s that tried to slip in. Could be but she took the offered hand anyway, trusting because she did not have much of a choice. 

North could feel that he tried to slow down the transfer, he flicked up firewalls to channel the info dump down to a trickle and she still felt herself lock in place. It still came across something of a jumbled mess however, some of it flashes of direct memory and some of it simply data packets of summaries. A mass dump that covered pretty much from the time she had last seen them leave to the time they walked in the door here. 

How many androids that were half functioning in dumps, begging and pleading. Aidan spending more time than he should helping a few of the more put together ones. Amanda trying to hurry them both along as she rerouted drones where she could to buy them time. Too many times hiding among parts and trusting nothing, no one, would give them away. Aidan burned through three regulators. There were seven RK900’s now in those dumps as nothing more than parts. 

North pulled out of the flashes of memory with a violent shudder, feeling like for a moment that she might simply fall apart. She had been pulled in too hard, the memory transfer taking over without her even realizing. There was white grain across her vision that was clearing up in milliseconds. Was then that she realized 900 stood with both hands in the air and three guns trained on him. Licked her lips, a pointless action, and tried to gather herself, she was North, not 900. “It’s fine, always forget this idiot can’t even interface properly.” At least her voice was even, for a moment she was worried it would come out with static echoing in her words. 

There was more, a lot more in the data dump but for now she ignored it, would try to sort through it later. If anything was outstanding he would have told her, or at least flagged it, so she hoped. Guns were put away and 900 calmly put his hands down like this happened to him all the time, maybe it did. “Aidan is going to need at least three hours, can you keep an eye on the wonder-twin?” Did not need Connor wandering about without escort, some here still would remember what he was before, and some here knew him from the tower. 900 stared at her and she scoffed, “Fine, I need a few hours to try to organize this crap, I’ll see about getting you a call with the others.” 

It took time and lots of work to contact the other locations, secure connections were getting harder to come by. Someone had suggested going the human route and getting burner phones, as much as it made her want to hiss the suggestion had some weight to it. He did not even nod, just turned and walked off, really CyberLife had gone so wrong with the RK900 series if they ever wanted them to blend in. Of course they were not made to blend in at all, playing human was below them, hell playing like a normal android was below them. North really wished she could kick out 900 and Connor and pretend they just never showed up, but she had things to do now.


	5. Be careful What You Ask For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sumo! Answers! Plot? 900 might be a dick oops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is second update today! -happy dances- Pretty sure I slept about 17 hours straight, being sick is evil but sleep is amazing.

Aidan had literally shoved him into a room a slammed the door in his face, leaving Connor to stare at the woodgrain door like it would give him answers instead. Picked up the noises behind him, clicks across cement floor and heavy breathing, heart rate that was outside of human resting BMP. Slowly turned towards the sound, unsure what he had been forced into only to feel the smile over take his face a second later. “Sumo!” Calling the dog was like giving permission as the saint bernard jumped up, planting massive paws against his chest and huffing a breath in his face before licking. Connor was not sure he could smile any brighter, fingers buried into fur and dropping down with the large dog to pull him close. “How are you doing boy? What are you doing here?” 

Sumo was 3.6 pounds lighter than last Connor had seen him and with minty breath that showed someone was looking out for the dog’s health. Some part of him had not expected to see Sumo again. _He was arrested trying to find you._ The audio memory made him freeze and cling tighter to the dog, completely missing the door open behind him till someone was knelt next to him and reaching towards Sumo. “Anderson left yesterday morning and should return tomorrow afternoon.” Something twisted within him and for a moment Connor was worried something was wrong, that maybe something had not been aligned right in his repair. Then he realized that he was crying. 

It should have been awkward. Knelt on a floor with his face muffled against a panting Sumo and 900 likely perfectly folded down to watch the scene with unblinking eyes. “He has not yet been informed of your return, nor that anyone was looking for you, I will facilitate a private reunion for you.” Hank would return, here tomorrow, that was what he clung to in the moment. “What is he doing?” Small words, muffled but he did not pull away from Sumo, even if the dog was slowly leaning more and more weight onto him. 

“Supply and information run, he has multiple contacts among law enforcement that will still lend him a hand, going as far as being late to answer calls of break ins to CyberLife owned property. There are small time crime rings that keep an eye out and report back to him if they find anything, parts or androids in need. With the implants it has to be military grade androids or humans that go out.” 

Finally managed to pull back enough to see again, to take in a breath to assist with cooling and try to collect himself better. Sumo was full out laying against him and he was sure a human would have fallen over, as it were he was happy for the weight to ground him. “What implants?” Maybe he would finally learn something of what was going on instead of shoved around, instead of just hints of comments that never got expanded on. 900 shifted from the corner of his vision for the first time and held his palm facing up to project an image of a small half circular device. 

“The answer to devenacy from CyberLife, it locks into the main neck port and does a complete system override. Attempts to alter the device resets any system it has synced with.” 

Silence fell as Connor thought over the words, system override is not a reprograming, meaning that anyone under control of one is just that, under control but still aware. Trapped in their own bodies as original programing is shoved to the front. Resetting any system synced with would be the main AI system. Tampering killed the deviant and made them blank slates. Trapped or erased. It was a visible collar around the neck, or a noose. CyberLife won.

“Why go through the trouble to find me?” Not that he was not grateful, but Aidan outright said he rather have left Connor in the trash, “Who is the ‘she’ that wanted me operational?” It was not North clearly, she had barely even glanced at him. Now the first pause that 900 had given, even looked away and lips thinned. “900, I cannot assist if I do not know what is going on.” Was not sure how he could assist at all, Jericho was scattered, there were means to control deviants if they were caught, there were RK900s on the streets. 

“You never were meant to be able to convert. Markus has tried talking Aidan through the possibilities and it never works. Statistically you never should have been able to pull what you did in the tower. The ones freed from the tower are different, faster at adapting to emotional ranges, their own programing shifted to allow them to feel things. Deviancy mutated through you.” Clipped words, almost coldly given if not for how tense he was, and Connor blinked in muted shock. He had not even considered if he could free the androids at the tower when he had gone, he had simply known what he would do, what he wanted to do. If it had not worked then what would have happened? 

Pushed the thought aside and instead watched the skin fold back from 900’s hand, “For your second question it is better if I show you.” Connor tightened his fingers into fur a moment before reaching out a hand, his eyes never leaving 900, tried to prepare himself for that zap of too much power. 

**Initializing program download zengartwo.app**

He tried to yank back, scrambling to throw up firewalls and deny connection, white fingers wrapped around his wrist and held him with almost no effort. 19% download complete. Lashed out with his free hand, he could not allow this to happen, it was the zen garden application. Amanda. Paid no attention to the wuff of Sumo as the dog lumbered off because of the commotion, only fought harder to get free. 32% downloaded. Slammed palm into 900’s nose to try to distract before punching where analysis showed a weaker point to target, where cooling systems were housed. There was sound on the second hit, not a grunt like a human would give but a crunch of metal scraping over plastic. 56% downloaded. 

900 did not fight back but left Connor to scramble against him, another hit and the side of his chassis dented in slightly. Managed to surge forward, using weight to help and got 900 to topple backwards, head slamming against the floor. 81%. He finally looked annoyed, with blue splattered across his face and eyes narrowed. Connor ripped open 900’s shirt with one hand and elbowed hard enough for skin to flicker out so he could find the pump regulator. 97%. Clawed at the glow of blue before remembering finally he had a gun and pulling it, finger already on the trigger. 

**Download complete**   
**Initializing Zen Garden Two**

It was cloudy and he was breathing too hard in pants as he knelt on the stone under his knees, the breeze that rolled by smelled of nothing and Connor crumbled. Forehead against the smooth stone and eyes screwed shut, maybe if he ignored it then it would go away, maybe he could exit out. “Hello Connor.” Her voice was just the same, mild disdain with equal measure of judgement. “It’s been a while.”


	6. Updates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aidan gets crap fixed, Connor emotes and Amanda glares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any weird numbers or punctuation or odd spacing is thanks to one of my cats sitting in my lap rubbing on the keyboard randomly. I think I got it all, but who knows. So this chapter partly brought to you by Sye trying to chew off my space bar and having a love obsession with the number pad. Also I swear plot starts up next chapter, was suppose to be this chapter but errr idk Aidan is a drama queen

Aidan slammed into the room, shoulder jarring against the doorframe and still stumbled before he reached the single chair in the room. His vision was overtaken with red, so many warnings popping up that they over layered each other. Snarled at it all because he knew already, he knew he had been an idiot, should not have connected to the network, should not have opened communication with North, should not have touched Connor to shove him off on the dog. Dug fingers into the rug under his hands and tried to sort through it all, but mostly wondered who the fuck put a rug down. Someone that knew he tended to end up on the floor more often than he should, what a fucking laugh. 

Gave in and folded down where he was, eyes closed to focus better and slowly worked through all the errors. Some of them were pointless and old news, facts about bio-component compatibility, like he was not aware he had rebuilt himself twice now. There was even a lovely message that the rug was 99% polyester with trace amounts of concrete dust and Gain detergent in the fibers. For a dry clean only rug. That got him to snort at least in amusement. 

“Aidan? I have a tablet for you.” 

Voice pinged it as a PC200 and Aidan opened his eyes, there were not many PC’s around, most had in fact stayed working and fallen back to program, been forced back into their programing. “Ah, Chris.” There was an undercurrent to his voice pitching it wrong and he fixed the error before speaking again. “You can leave it on the desk, thank you.” Standing would be pointless right this moment, he had another 43 seconds before he could bother to try, systems aligning his balance slowly. 

“The blue tone is two decimals high.” Chris rushed the words out, looking almost embarrassed, “For your eyes.” And then he fled, or rather turned and quickly strode away, Aidan was taking it as fleeing. Still took the words and added it to his list to fix in staysis, 900 had only been been slightly helpful in helping him figure out the RGB color balance for his eyes. For some reason 900 was against him regaining his original eye colour when he had the choice to pick something different now. Maybe he had a point with Connor around now. Still the idea of losing another part of himself burned. Was not sure if it was worse than sharing a face. 

That was a whole nother nightmare, having a second RK800 up and running, or maybe Connor was the first and he would be considered the cast-off. His own system just loved to point out that he was in less than ideal shape, too many parts had been replaced causing him to completely rewrite some programs to adjust. RK800’s were not compatible to other models. Not really. He was just making RK900 parts work the best he could. It was far from ideal but he did not have many more options.

Which brought him back to the tablet that would hold the latest updates to hopefully even out some of his problems. North was secretly a sweetheart, not that he would ever fucking tell her, she would shoot him point blank in the face. Still she knew to give him a table with the updates instead of storing them more securely in her own system to offer over through interface. Standing now was smoothly done and he rubbed his hands over the roughness of his jeans, the fabric was stiff from stains and a shower would not go amiss. Before he had to go into standby for updates. Maybe that would straight out the tangled fucked-up-ness that were his thoughts. 

It was a communal shower, that as far as he could tell was rarely used, then again he supposed that no one here went out often enough to maintain a shower routine. Their loss. Though one of the stalls did have dog fur almost coating every wall, someone was at least bathing the resident dog. Shook his head and picked a stall at random, leaving two knives in easy grabbing distance and turned the water as hot as it would go. The temperature would just ding more warnings at him but for the moment he managed to get them all minimized so it was only a red halo around his vision. 

Could almost understand why humans thought that showers were good places to think. There was something about being cut off from the world in a rush of water, walls close around and the world fogged out past a few feet. Let his skin fade away and ignored the patchwork of whites and grays mixed with black panels here and there. Took exactly ten minutes to shower before he was out and drying off, dressed in another pair of jeans and the only clean shirt he had left, a button up that he did not bother to deal with buttoning. Did not pass anyone as he cut through the halls and for that he was thankful. Too many here still watched him with wide eyes. They were all fucking annoying. 

Swiped the tablet off the desk and for a moment wondered where 900 was, likely babysitting Connor though, well it was nice not being the one looked after for once. Sat on the low cot that was shoved against a wall and hesitated before laying down. His feet hung off the stupid thing but it was not exactly like he had to worry about comfort. Was not even sure why he bothered to lay down, standing would have been just fine. Initialized connection with the tablet and dove into the update programs waiting there before he could question himself more.

One day he would have to ask anyone else what staysis was like for them, from the moment he entered he was here, the garden. Always this one spot though, exact center of the place, which was fine, meant he could see almost the entire program from here. There was a running tally of actions in the side of his vision, fourteen updates to install, three patches, with system diagnostics running parallel to it all. Estimated time to completion at three hours and two minutes. 

Once he had hated this place, then again he supposed that only made sense, this had been somewhere that he was judged and found lacking, all within the span of two hours. It had changed since then, the feel of it had changed to something warmer, there was moss creeping across the stones and signs of life spreading out. Amanda kept changing things as she figured out her own likes and dislikes, but for a program it was decent, he supposed. 

A shout pulled his attention and he rose a single eyebrow in surprise, normally it was him getting into a row with Amanda, not 900. Realized the voice as he took off running, Connor. 900 had pulled the fucking idiot here, likely without warning him. Did not even fully take in what was going on, Connor so very angry and Amanda confused, before getting in the middle, literally shoving himself between the two. “Chill the fuck out.” There was a sniff of annoyance from behind him and he was sure that Amanda had her nose in the air and eyes narrowed, really she was a wonder at learning the negative emotions first. 900 blamed him for that shit for some reason. 

Connor was almost vibrating in place, rage almost hiding his terror and Aidan blinked at him before feeling like an idiot. “Amanda, let him go for fuck’s sake, this is not how you prove you are not an evil bitch.” Babysitting, it was a regular feeling anymore. “He hit me.” The tone was cold but there was something under it that made him turn to look at her, surprised at the hurt in her eyes. “Well… I imagine the last meeting you two had was not terribly great you know.” That would have been before things shifted after all, before she realized what was happening and before she had been stuck with him for a few hours. 

Aidan watched her shift her weight and almost struggle with her words, “I was trying to apologize.” 

“For which part? Setting me up to fail? Controlling me?” 

Wow, Aidan had to give props on the rage in those words, emoting done right. “Let him go Amanda.” Sighed words because he just wanted a nice peaceful three hours in his own head space. Knew the moment she listened before Connor slid back a step, keeping optimail distance to lash out, or run. “Great, now we are going to talk like rational beings. Connor meet the largest AI ever created, commonly known as Amanda. She has done this thing with emotions and feelings and now she mopes and stares longingly into space.” Was half sure that she was not glaring at him like she could set him on fire, but Aidan was ignoring that. “Think of it as she deviated from her core programing, so take a breath, use your words.” 

And he walked the hell off, because he was not getting in the middle of that craziness, not happening, they could deal with that, or not for all he cared. The garden originally was a small thing, but since Amanda’s program shift it had grown larger, with 900 and himself adding bits here and there. He supposed if things worked out he might have to deal with Connor altering it as well, as long as there were not suddenly dog running amuck. 

Two hours and forty-nine minutes left and he had a lot of things to go over in that time, so walked till he was half sure he would not hear anything except for a scream and sat down. Hopefully at the end of this most of his programs would be working again, for the first time in months. Settled against a tree and closed his eyes to work down his list. 

Time was a lost thing and it was only for the display he could pull up that that told him it had been three and a half hours exactly. Knew it was Amanda before he opened his eyes simply because she blended in almost seamlessly with the application. “Connor has become more stubborn.” Well she was not wrong. Hummed to prompt her to keep going as he flipped through the diagnostic report results. “I failed him in many ways and I am not sure I can make up for that.” Gave a shrug and ended up stretching, a pointless action other than it felt right. Maybe he needed to be a shrink and a babysitter.

“Give it time, it was only hours ago for him after all.” Which had to mess with him some, hours ago he had been on the side of a winning revolution, hours ago things had looked so positive, like just maybe something good could happen in the world. Aidan got that in a sense, he had most of the memories still, how much Connor had fought against deviating for the longest time. Then it happened and everything happened at once and then he woke up in a dump with six months past. He understood in his own way. 

“So understanding Aidan.” Alright she was teasing him now so he ignored her and stood, no reason to hang around here any longer. “Yeah well don’t tell anyone, would ruin my reputation.” Started the process to ease out of staysis, and Amanda lightly touched his hand, “Forgot to tell you, he shot 900.” The words hit him as he snapped his eyes open and for a moment the only thing that escaped him was a soft, “Fuck.”


	7. Downtime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short fluff moment of animated fish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I lied, no plot this chapter because it got away from me, oops, um have some character development? 
> 
> Next chapter has plot and action and will be posted within the next hour to make up for it. 
> 
> Also every kudo is amazing and you all rock <3

Connor came back into real time as a hand was pushing him backwards and for a moment he was lost, trying to realign where he was compared to where he had been. There was still an echo of Amanda’s words, calm and careful, with a louder echo of gunfire in an enclosed room. There was whining approximately seven point four feet to his left, increased heart rate as well, Sumo. There was a grating scrap of metal and plastic and high pitched whine of something malfunctioning under him, and some distant part of his programing told him that would be 900. 

Everything crawled for another few moments, broken down into facts. The gun in his hand that had just been fired, the splatter of thurium, hand on his chest pushing him away with strength he could not match. The door to the room slammed open with a bang, and for a moment the exact decimal rating of the sound popped up on his HUD. 

Everything sped back up and Connor threw himself backwards before a second person could reach for him, set the gun on the floor and slid away from it. Eyes too wide as the fact finally laid out what happened, was happening. Sumo terrified and hiding behind a couch. 900 on the floor bleeding and shot. Because Connor had shot him. Because 900 had initialized the zen garden application. 

Someone picked up the gun and Connor was not surprised to have it pointed at him, only sat perfectly still with his hands in sight and tried to see past to 900. There were words being spoken, someone knelt at 900’s side to try to keep him from sitting up, but his own audio processors were ringing still. He did not know the android pointing the gun at him, it was an AP700 model, not generally equipped with knowledge of firearms but he held the gun steady and in proper grip. 

Watched 900 brush off the helpful hands and pull himself to his feet, looking mildly annoyed, “He acted in self defense, there is no reason to detain him.” The words were said loudly, they had to be for Connor to clearly make them out, another 21 seconds for audio functions to reset completely. The AP700 wavered finally, glancing to the side, at the other android in the room before finally lowering the gun. “Your timely assistance is appreciated, but unneeded.” Even Connor had to blink at how very calmly 900 basically just dismissed everyone. 

There was a trickle of blue that was running down from his chest, dripping to the floor even but 900 stood there with icy eyes that dared anyone to argue with him. The android at his side scoffed, and said something too soft for him to pick it up. Still they brushed past and out of the room, pulling the AP700 along and shoving through the small crowd at the door. Connor watched and only turned enough to realize there really was a crowd at the door, at least six others staring in. 

900 strode forward and simply closed the door in everyone’s face without a word and Connor blinked trying to figure out why. 900 had every right to be angry, to accept help even, instead he stared at Connor. “Seven minutes till I shut down from thurium loss, I require your help.”

That got Connor up and moving, rushing even because seven minutes is not very long at all to live. 900 leaned heavily against a wall, not even moving more than a couple of feet from the door, a hand held to his side and free hand opening the shirt that was stained blue. Connor did not even think about it, just batted his hand out of the way and took over getting the fabric pushed away. Scans showed that the bullet was still lodged and it took him two tries to find the edging of a panel to have access. The RK900 schematics were slightly different than his own. 

Was so focused on what he was doing, carefully moving tubes and wires aside to reach for the bullet and the deeper broken tubes leaking thurium, that when 900 spoke up he flinched. “Aidan would say I should apologize.” Froze a moment on that before grasping the twisted bit of metal and pulling it out of the way so he could either close or repair tubes. Ignored the poor attempt of not apologizing. “Can your self-repair take care of most of the damage?” 

There was one of the main tubes that was ripped open that was causing most of the leak but he was hesitant to close it, in his own system that would cripple movement below the waist. Every second it leaked however was another second that 900 bleed out. “Yes.” That was it for an answer, no details to add on. So Connor found the cut off for the tube and scanned for anything else before pulling back, hands coated blue now. 

900 was watching him and Connor stared back a moment before looking away, he was not apologizing for shooting him, he refused. Fidgeted a moment before taking another step back, “I-” Paused to come up with what exactly he was going to do. “I am going to check on Sumo.” Would get him away from 900 and away from being stared at unblinking, keep him from feeling guilty for the damage gone. 

“Thank you, and sorry.” 

The words were only said once Connor turned away and he did not pause but instead moved away, towards the couch, for now wiped his hands on his pants and knelt on the floor. “Oh Sumo, sorry boy, come here.” Reached for the dog and carefully tilted Sumo’s head to rub at his ears to check for damage. Somehow Aidan was easier to deal with. Which was odd given how the other 800 seemed to want to avoid him at every turn. Aidan at least did not stare at him like he was prey to be hunted down. Sumo finally shifted to lean against his legs and Connor smiled on that, at least Sumo was easy to understand. 

There was a knock at the door that had Sumo whining and Connor tensing, his line of sight to the door was blocked by the couch. “Come in North.” Smooth words from 900 and the door opened, Connor considered for a moment standing, then remembered the cold look North had given him before. Maybe not. 

“The fuck are your two idiots doing? I said keep an eye on him not get shot by him 900.” 

“It was a miscalculation.” 

“Bullshit, you plan everything down to the smallest percent of possibility.” Footsteps that moved a few feet into the room. “You look like shit.” Sound of cloth over synthetic skin and a staticy whisper of skin trying to activate, or deactivate. “Should you even be standing? Where’s your newest pet, he should be helping you fix this, you have a fan shoved thr-” 

“Do not speak of him like that.” Harsher tone, first real bit of emotion that Connor had heard from the other RK model. He bent over Sumo and chewed on his lip in thought, North clearly did not know he was still in the room. Had completely forgotten about the cooling system damage, had focused more on the thurium leak because it had demanded attention in the moment. 

A scoff, “Fine, whatever. When Aidan is back up you three can get out, take the mutt with you, there’s been a change in plans, the theater group got their hands on an active collar and want one of you to look at it.” The door closed harder than it should have behind her, footsteps moving off. 

Five seconds later there was a thud and Connor went wide eyed, there were only a couple possibilities of what that could be, and when he managed to stand he was proven right. 900 had slid down the wall, a slight grimace across his face. He looked a bad sight, shirt basically destroyed and skin flickering across his chest like it was trying to form and simply unable to hold form. Connor traced across a visible dent and winced, but that at least made up his mind to see what could be done. 

“You run the risk of overheating.” Which was his fault, “Is there a repair kit nearby?” Somehow was back at 900’s side, knelt down with a hand on his chest, pushing open one of the bigger panels. It scraped open from a dent and the sound alone was worth a shudder, then he saw the damage and felt a hundred times worse. “Oh.” There was in fact a fan pushed into an artificial lung, blades neatly cut into the lining that at least showed the fan had not been running at the time. There was other damage but that had to be the worst, self-repair had already but thurium flow to a few components around the area but it would take more than that. 

900 did not answer him and Connor made the mistake of glancing up to catch pale gray eyes watching him with a single raised eyebrow. He had just reached a hand into 900 without so much as asking. Pulled back slowly and stared back because he had a point, something had to be done. “Really a repair kit would be helpful right now, along with at least four bottles of thurium, I can fix most of this.” 

Silence stretched before 900 tilted his head as if puzzled, but finally answered. “That is not needed, self-repair will complete the task in five hours.” A blink, five hours was a long time to be limited on movement or capabilities because of lacking most cooling ability. Was not his call though, so only nodded, “Okay.” 

900 moved to stand and Connor quickly followed suit, staying back enough to not be in the way, but followed the other android to the couch. Was unsure as 900 sat, but just a look had him sitting down as well. “Did she apologize?” Did not need to ask who he meant, but Connor looked down at his hands and tried to put together words. “In a way, she explained.” 

Amanda explained the whys and answered every question he threw at her, relived every conversation they ever had and explained finally, explained her own directives and orders and how she went about them. Explained what she was doing now and why. She was still operating on CyberLife’s network, still played the part of being under their thumb, currently mostly cut off since the collars came into effect. She should have had access to the RK900 units in production, except every android produced was outfitted with a collar now. CyberLife had not taken kindly to 900 getting away. Which was her fault, she had woken him and freed him before hiding evidence of the fact. 

Explaining was better than an empty apology. Not enough, but better. 

The television across from the couch came on, Connor could trace the link to 900 as channels flipped through, apparently they were done talking. Now it was waiting, for Aidan he would assume, since he had been in the garden he had to be in staysis for an unknown length of time. The tv came to a stop on a movie and 900 carefully leaned back a few seconds before Sumo jumped on the couch, this was a routine of some type, 900 and Sumo watching movies. Watched Sumo sprawl out and only then did 900 very slowly seem to relax, still sat too straight, still with a resting frown but he left a hand on Sumo’s side and stretched out his legs. 

Connor could not focus on the movie, simple as that. There were too many other things that he wanted to ask, or worry over. Why were they being basically kicked out, because of him? Who was the theater group? How was he going to see Hank, or was that why they were to take Sumo? What updates did Aidan need to go through? Why was 900 not cleaning up and finding a new shirt? 

That last question sat differently than the rest and jared him from asking what was known about the control collars. Tried to not focus on 900, instead reached for Sumo and worked on stealing the dog’s attention simply for something to do. When he finally did pay enough attention to the tv he had to stare. Talking fish. This was an animated film. Released in 2003, Finding Nemo. A plot synopsis was available but he dismissed it to turn and stare at 900. “I like it.” Defensive words cut in before Connor could even figure out what to ask. Instead simply paid more attention to try to figure out why.


	8. A lack of explosions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Action! Gunfire and jumping off floors and idiots being idiots.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the second chapter posted today, just to note. Also longer than I meant it to be, but hey stuff kind of happened? Yay?

Aidan was not expecting to cut into family movie time or whatever bullshit this was. Two androids and a mut watching movies like this was some nice domestic vacation. “There is a bathroom literally right there, neither of you could try to clean up?” While he was not expecting a reaction from 900, it was amusing to watch Connor jump slightly and turn like he was expecting the grim reaper to be standing over his shoulder. Also amusing to watch him squirm trapped but clearly embarrassed. Leaned on the back of the couch and smirked with how bitchy 900 looked, “Pixar is still better.” Seriously they were watching Lion King, this is what he came back to. 

“They are a subsidiary of Disney.” 

Made him roll his eyes because they only had this conversation what felt like too many times, “Still prefer them when you make me watch this crap. Now up, come on, lets get you both looking less like you came from a horror movie before North really does kick us out on our asses.” Because she was close, only reason she likely did not was because she was locked up in her room with the android version of a headache and no one else here was brave enough to. Aidan had laughed when he learned she had willingly interfaced with 900. 

Watched 900 and Connor share a look and shoved down that flare of jealousy that crept up because nope, he was not going down that path. Instead straightened up and clapped, “Come on kids, if we are lucky we can get to the next base before midnight. Connor feel free to dig through the dresser, 900 you’re with me in all your clicking glory, seriously what did you do? Is that a back-up fan?” 

Not like the RK900’s really ran their cooling on fans, not really, the two fans they had were more for emergency cooling in case of extreme thurium loss. Or in this case a third of his components being cut off, and thus likely why he was still sitting on the couch given Connor at least was working on wiggling free of sleeping dog. 

“What clicking?” 

That made Aidan frown at him, glanced at Connor who also looked confused and shook his head in the silent question if he heard anything. Left all three of them very still before Aidan slammed an open connection communication on the network. 

**_‘Evacuate now! Three bombs in the southeast corner.’_** Noise exploded across the network, voices overlapping and Aidan snapped it all down, not closed but set it on a filter to only alert him if someone tried to message directly. “Fucking fuck.” Hissed words but he was already sending a ping to Amanda for anything she had while also adding edits to the emergency routes that were being uploaded on the network. “Lets go.” 

Did not need to wait to see what either of them did, he trusted that 900 would follow and make sure that Connor did as well. Did not even care that Connor scooped up the mutt to bring, was fine, might slow them down but Aidan already added it in and adjusted for both that and the slower movements of 900 right now. Saw the message 900 sent that they could escort up to four people that were not combat ready and really wanted to snap that no they fucking could not. Bit it down however because this was not the time and likely he was right. 

The halls were a mess of people running, splitting into groups and going separate ways and Aidan picked their path with grim determination. They would draw the most attention, three RK models would be a bigger target than any other android here. 

_‘Aidan! Get to the theater and let them know we are withdrawing to point four, and for fucks sake deck Markus.’_

The message closed before he could bother to reply and for a moment he considered rerouting to find North because she was likely going to do something stupid. Like draw attention to herself because she was widely known. Not his problem, she would just get prissy if he tried, she could take care of herself. 

At the stairs three others were waiting for them, just three but one of them was a child model being carried and Aidan snarled, “I am not avoiding anything for the brat.” Pushed pass and let Connor try to play nice with the group that was set to follow them, two older household models and a child. Was doable, but was not his fault if any of them got horrified along the way. 

“We understand the risk, but Luis cannot keep up with the others and I can’t go into water.” Aw he hurt someone’s feelings, whatever, he warned them. There was a reason they could pick up slow stranglers. It was in fact Connor that spoke up reassuring them that everything would be fine and Aidan tried to not bristle as he stepped into the stairwell and listened, 900 at his shoulder. 

_‘Two on the third landing.’_ There was more emotion from 900 this way, always had been and Aidan was surprised a moment to realized he had missed hearing it when he had been cut off from being able to do wireless communication easily. _‘My speed is reduced 40 percent.’_ Better than he had thought but still annoying, nodded and left it to 900 to update the others. 

If he were human maybe he would be nervous, thankfully he was not and when he stepped forward Aidan did not flinch at the echo of gunfire, simply moved, actions already planned out. Jumped on the railing and pushed up, grabbed the set higher and used momentum to carry him into one of the fully decked SWAT members. Humans, fuck. Made him hesitate just a moment, long enough to get a rifle slammed across his face and then any thought of playing nice was gone. However when he sank a knife under the human’s chin it was blue that bleed out, not red and for that he grinned. 

Made sense that they would not send humans, not with explosives laid out, however dressing androids up as human was a new one, something likely to catch them off guard. It worked, and Aidan sent out a message letting everyone know even as he turned to the second attacker that lashed out. Fast but slower than him, these were standard military models an Aidan refused to feel bad when he ducked and stepped close, took the main body hit to slide a blade smoothly through the thurium pump and twisted. There was a collar at the back of the android’s neck. 

Footsteps behind him but he already knew it was the group, so shoved the now dead android off of him and flipped the knife in his hand to dispel some of the blue blood. “Let's go.” It was Connor that opened the door to the floor, cautiously peering out before letting the door open farther, Aidan let the other 800 creep down the hall and instead brought up the rear of the group for the moment. Before he closed the stairwell door he snapped the handle off, just in case. 

Power cut in the hospital and generators did not kick up, ah well it seemed everything was starting now then, great. “Move.” Hissed the word and that was a mistake, though really anyone should have been able to hear the clanking limp of Luis. Still there was a flash of muzzle fire and Aidan shoved both household models down, swearing he felt one of the bullets pass by. Heard the fight for the whole four seconds it lasted and looked up to see Connor straightening his shirt like this was a fashion show instead of an escape. 

900 glanced at him with a raised eyebrow and Aidan shrugged because well it was a Connor thing, he remembered that much, if he had a tie he would have been fixing that as well. Almost wanted to find the guy a tie when this was all over, eh maybe. The moved finally, past far too many open doors that made Aidan twitchy, and past one of the bombs that he had heard. The kid stared at it with wide eyed and yeah he could understand that, they were going to level a fucking hospital just to flush out some androids. What the fuck. Had they even evacuated the whole place? 

_‘Twenty 900’s with ETA of twelve minutes, no air support yet as the drones are malfunctioning, streetlights are tapped, hurry.’_

Amanda’s voice whispered across and holy fuck. 20? 20 fucking RK900’s? Fuuuuuck. “Move faster.” Snapped words as he pushed forward, they reached the second staircase that went to the garage, otherside of the stupid building of course. Should have realized he was doing a dumb thing, Connor started to call out but 900 at least acted instead of just saying something. 

Gunfire that close to his face was not appreciated, but then again the four shots were very much appreciated given it dropped a group of three that had been waiting in the stairwell. Aidan still glanced back at 900 with the most unimpressed look he could give. Stepped over still twitching legs and did a scan only to grumble. Word had gotten out where they were headed, which he had expected, planned on even, to draw attention to them, but was still annoying. “Connor with me, 900 stay here, yeah?” Would have to trust Connor at his back with 900 not operating completely. “You got your gun taken, didn’t you?” 

Connor nodded, looking slightly guilty on that, eyes sliding to 900 who still looked like a murder victim. Took a second to debate with himself before unsheathing a second knife and holding it out hilt first, “Make sure to return this, and not fucking stick it in anyone on our side.” Just knew he itched to ask why no gun and Aidan almost wanted him to push the issue right now, might throw him down the stairs as a distraction then. Instead Connor took the knife and checked the weight and balance and that was that, better than nothing. 

“Aidan.” There was something unhappy in that tone and he sighed, they did not have time for all of this. “I know, damn it, I know, no getting him shot, okay.” Did not need the lecture so instead wrapped fingers around the handrail and calculated the drop, jerked back for the gunfire to go past then shrugged and hopped over the railing. 

“Aidan!” Was three voices that yelled after him and he grinned sharply on that, was just four levels, the drop was not the problem, or even the sudden stop. ‘Hey, found three of your twins 900.’ The RK900’s were staring at him with something like surprise, likely not having been expecting anyone to literally drop in. Did not have time to fully distribute the shock of landing before he was ducking into a roll, just because he avoided guns did not mean anyone else would be so kind to do the same. 

Preconstrution outlined several possibilities and fuck he had missed being able to do that, took some of the thrill out of things, but made everything so much easier. Jumped directly into one and reacted as needed. Lash out at a knee, back on his feet and turn to avoid a punch, grab arm and break arm, use RK unit as shield while disabling with knife to back of neck just above the fucking collar. One down. The one that stumbled from the knee hit stuck to it’s gun and fired through the disabled unit making Aidan curse and ignore the flare of warning on his HUD. Shoved the body forward and followed only to get hit by the third and go tumbling across the floor like this was a wrestling match. Which was shit because he was not stronger than a 900 unit. 

Saw the flash of movement that was Connor joining the fight but was a little busy trying to get the hulk of death machine off him. Ended up chest down, so at least most the fast kill points were covered but it also tied his hands on a lot of possibilities. Felt fingers dig into his hair before his face was bashed down on concrete and his vision was basically red from those warnings. Threw an elbow back and bucked, at least getting the RK unit to pull back enough to give him enough room to do something more. Passed the knife between hands and half rolled before striking out, the RK900 tried to pull back but was too slow and ended up with a face full of steel. 

“Uhg, you fuckers are heavy.” There was gunfire coming from behind a car as Aidan shoved the RK unit off him and stayed low, glanced for Connor only to see he had finished his fight and was running for the gunfire. Motherfucker. Most possibilities had low chances and he snarled before grabbing a gun on the ground and running to the right. Was firing before he even got a visual, blind fire to draw attention and it worked enough that Connor hopped over the car to engage in combat. Left Aidan to still and wait to see if anyone else made themselves known. 

Next movement on his end however was Sumo brushing against his legs and honestly he had forgotten about the dog, damn. Connor finished and Aidan snapped, threw the gun and moved forward suddenly so very angry now. This was all bullshit. “What the fuck was that! You can’t just run towards being shot at, would have served you right if you got shot in the fucking face!” 

Saw how startled Connor was for a moment as Aidan pushed him, brown eyes wide and look of surprise on his stupid face before his eyes hardened and he stood his ground. “You’re one to talk jumping like that, four floors blindly, basically into their arms. There was a seventeen percent-” He did not need to hear chances and percents, he knew all that already, he knew it, growled and stepped forward again. Or rather tried to step forward but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. 

Did not need to look to know it was 900, still scoffed and turned away though, saw the household models and the kid and snarled at them. Hoped the fuckers enjoyed the show. “I secured a van.” They were making their great escape in a van, this was great, “You’re driving.” Was not expecting an answer on that so stomped away from the other RK models to approach the others and their new van apparently. Threw himself into a seat and turned some attention on the warnings he had minimized. Gunshot and damage to his face. Of course. The second was more annoying given he could taste thurium, his display so helpful in telling him that it was his. Just great. 

Would deny that he yelped when a RK900 was shoved at him, left him scrambling out of the way before Connor slid into the van and the door closed. “What the fuck?” Connor refused to look at him, still angry, and Aidan seethed a moment, glanced at the other three and all three shrugged, brat included. “900 damn it.” Well it was crowded and he was grumpy and fuck this, so as the van started up he started to wiggle his way up front without kicking anyone in the face. 

By the time he sprawled in the front passenger seat they were pulling out of the garage and he remembered to send a ‘thanks bitch’ to Amanda when it became clear there was no one stationed at this exit. “Overheating?” Would make sense, now that he was a little calmer to think about it, would be a good reason to pick up a body. 900 tilted his head in what could be an answer and that pretty much told Aidan that this was going to be the most awkward ride ever. Wiped at his face with a sleeve to try to mop up some and repositioned so the little warning light would fade some about his side. 

“Wall-E was better.” Just to be an annoying bitch. The answering glare was totally worth it and he had to grin, uncaring that likely he had blood in his teeth, made 900 at least shake his head. Things were fine then, so settled back and ignored the soft conversation from behind him, Connor playing nice because hey he was good at that, made one of them at least.


	9. Just give him some coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coffee is the start of all things good or bad, Hank figures out what to do with his time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this would have been out like two days ago, had a chapter all typed and done but I hated it. Which lead to my rage deleting it and typing this out in two hours instead because got hit with better muse over a hotpocket, idk. Nevermind I should have been asleep four hours ago and have to be up for work in another four hours, haahaa no, instead here we go! Hopefully a better chapter nine than the first draft. 
> 
> Really people might have realized by now but I do not reread what I write, at all, so given this was typed in two hours it might have more mistakes than normal, my bad.

It had all started with a cup of coffee. That was the thing that Hank remembered clearly, he had been some unknown number of days into a bender, because fuck it all at that point, and for some reason he had a want for coffee. Then there was an RK900 asshole in his own damn house telling him it was unwise to drink it and yeah that was the start of it somehow. No, maybe that is not right, maybe the start was seeing the news, or was waiting outside in the fucking cold for hours for someone that could never show up. Hank was pretty sure it mostly started with the coffee though. 

Maybe if he had done more at the start of things going to shit, maybe if he had not just fallen into a bottle, maybe if he had kept his head together then things could have gone different. Fuck maybe if he had not gotten attached everything could have been different. Instead he felt responsible for the idiot. Connor. He was like a kid figuring things out, an overeager puppy just wanting to fix his own mistakes. In a way he pretty much was just a kid, just a kid trying to do the right thing in guilt of being on the wrong side for a while. 

Returning to work had been hell, going through the motions and shoved along by the android asshole that honestly just dragged him there while Hank was still a bit drunk. There were several of the damned things around, half the guys had not returned from the evacuation and instead there were RK900’s filling in spots. Hank was sure he had yelled and thrown a fit, he knew Reed had said some shit, for a rare time they were on the same side of shit, to a fashion. 

It started with a cup of coffee though. Because thing was that Hank loved his job, he did, even on his bad days he loved his job. So he buckled down and said fuck it and listened to Fowler and tried to do his job. Well he needed coffee for the pounding headache if he was going to stare at a computer screen for any length of time. Coffee that he again did not get because the damn android was waiting for him, same one or different one, hard to know since they all looked and acted the same. Words that were gibberish and snapped and Hank barely kept up with the conversation except the asshole told him some shit about Connor ending up in the trash because he was defective and useless. 

So yeah it started with coffee and never getting any damned coffee. 

To tell the truth he was not sure when he had made up his mind to go looking, it was no secret that any android ended up in a junkyard, there were two main ones in the state but only one that CyberLife constantly used. Somehow it became a hobby in a fucked up way. Trudge through work then go dumpster diving, except dumpster diving would have been more pleasant. There were androids there that just needed some shit swapped about and it did become a hobby then, with broken androids, people, trying to tell him what to get and what to do. Was not often that someone got to walk out of a junk heap but when it happened it was something lighter off his shoulders. It was a reason to get up everyday. 

And then one of them answering for once that they had seen RK800 and everything shifted in a way, words that Connor was somewhere in this trash heap focused everything. Hank had pretty much given up on finding the idiot, sure that CyberLife had kept him, taken him apart bit by fucking bit or something. The android helped out even though they could not find the guy any help with his lacking hips and cue Hank lugging around a torso for directions. 

Hank could not even say for sure when the drone had shown up telling him to stay put with his hands in the air, that authorities were on the way. Could not even pinpoint what happened from hearing that till the time cuffs were clicking over his wrists. Flashes and bits of what happened sure, finding Connor and the android that was helping him so softly telling him that reactivation would not be possible. Someone trying to tell him to drop the husk and Hank hit someone and it had gone downhill from there. 

Arrested for trespassing, theft of property, aiding known terrorists, resisting arrest and some other slew of bullshit. Did not bother to deny any of it either, just was the biggest pain possible in arguing that he did not steal shit, if _someone_ happened to walk out of the junkyard on their own then hey good on them. 

Hank figured that was it for him, he was done for, but at least he did something instead of waste away on drink and being useless. 

Instead he got broken out of jail and there had not been a single second that Hank had been fooled into thinking the jackass that showed up was Connor, he never would fall for that shit again. Not that the look-a-like tried, instead he sneered and bitched and basically complained the entire time, snapped that he a fucking name and it was not Connor for fucks sake. He got busted out of jail by a bitchy look-a-like and a traci, not his finest moment in life but it happened anyway. 

Was a surprise to find his dog waiting for him with android jesus but really that had just been one of those days, weeks… years maybe, just one of those years. He could have fussed more but instead Hank gave in because really it was not like he could go back to work, and here were people that he could try to help. Got to learn it was a slew of androids that petitioned for him to get picked up, several of those he had helped get back on their feet and out of one of the junkyards had raised their voice when they learned he was arrested. It was touching. Androids gave more of a shit than humans. His rescuers turned out to be the blue-haired traci from Eden Club, Monique as she prefered, and the look-a-like was Aidan. 

For a couple of weeks he was just kind of there, the odd man out, the human in company of androids that did not know what to do with a human around. Hank had to snap that he did not need Markus of all fucking people asking if he had eaten for the day for fucks sake. He was being treated with kid gloves and it was getting old fast now that he had figured out his shit, that yes this all happened and here he was. So really they could cut him some slack that it took him a few weeks to get his shit together and come up with a game plan. 

Hank did what he used to be good at, what had served him well back in the day. He networked. Because yeah maybe he had become a drunk old man, but he knew people, had known people for years, some of them petty criminals that just never were worth it. Some of them that he turned blind eye on over the years because of old roots and neighborhoods. Hell some of them he had arrested. There was the other side too, because he had been a damned good cop once, there were old favors he could call in, old buddies he had not talked to in years he reached out to that he figured he could possibly trust. 

Figured that no one really thought his going out most days was worth the risk, had a few argue with him that he needed to stay in, that he was going to draw attention, that he was going to get them found out. Was oddly the bitchy one that veto’d the worries, North that told people to lay off him, if he wanted to go get killed it was just fine. Alright not so odd at all, but still Hank was thankful that she got people to lay off. 

The surprise when Hank strolled in with news that hey there would be a truck by later with some crates of parts and blue blood was well fucking worth it. An impounded transport truck from some wrapped up case, Hank had not asked the details, or wanted to know the why and how, simply took the contact at their word and made arrangements. Was then that some of the treatment of being just something to look after, feed and water like he was a pet along with Sumo, stopped. Instead there was a bit of respect now and that made it worth it. The thanks of someone that outright hugged him because they had been hours from shutting down and now they were repaired because of him. Yeah it was worth it. 

Meeting 900 had been a shock and it was only Aidan stepping in the way that kept Hank from shooting the bastard, was automatic really, any RK900 was bad news. Coming face to face with one never ended with the person coming back. Any lingering horror stories of the Deviant Hunter had been quickly replaced by RK900, and really Connor compared to those guys was like a puppy to a feral wolf. Aidan had snarled at him, but the guy was always an angry bastard and never seemed to know what to do with Hank around. What mattered was that the RK900 had put a hand on Aidan’s shoulder and quietly scolded him for stepping in front of a gun. So maybe the guy was one of the okay ones. 

It should have always hurt on seeing Aidan, the few times that Hank saw him, because really the guy rarely stayed in one place. But it was almost impossible to see Connor when looking at Aidan. Aidan was an asshole sure, all bluster and bark, but he was also fucking broken as hell and tried to hide it. There was a hole where an eye should be, just an open socket, skin glitches showed missing panels, he stumbled and hands shook and really he was a mess. Was not hard to figure out who he was when Hank thought about it, outright asked if he was the asshole from the tower. Had to give props when Aidan snarled at him but at least answered truthfully. 

They had a weird bonding day somehow from that, with 900 in the background petting Sumo, Aidan and Hank working out some shit. Some of it was Aidan venting about memories, some of it was Hank asking questions about Connor. There was a story in bits there, Aidan having to put himself back together was only some of it. Hank did not understand it all, but he listened because fuck it, why not. Aidan was nothing like Connor, but sometimes it helped to talk to him. To know there was someone else that knew Connor as something more than the deviant hunter that switched sides. Even if Aidan bitched about it. Became what had to be the weirdest friendship in the history of anything. 

It started with coffee, and then Hank never got his fucking coffee because somehow every time he managed to get his hands on a cup there was someone there to steal it from him with words about managing his health. It was bullshit and he was sure that Aidan somehow threatened everyone over it because the asshole tried to deny that he could even stand Hank but still would seek him out on random days just to talk. Fucking android made no sense. At least over time Aidan seemed to be pulling himself together, literally, in bits and pieces he became a little more whole. Still never could confuse him for Connor.

Things moved the fuck on, Hank wandered between three different bases set up and always networked, there were humans that cared, there were androids in hiding, there was always shit to get done. So Hank kept going because really there was nothing else to do but keep going.

Today Hank got a goddamn cup of coffee. He deserved it today. Swung by some fancy cafe place on his way back to the theater feeling good about the day. One of the local android supporter groups had reached out and for a pretty penny they were willing to hand over something that was well worth the price the asked for. Twenty three androids that had been picked up to be shipped off for deactivation, twenty three androids that had been replaced by CyberLife because after a certain age the collars just could not work right. Someone had tried to explain it to him once, and while Hank was getting better as this technical shit it still made no sense to him, key point was any android made before 2028 could not be collared. The collar would completely fry them, Hanks terminology of course, there was more to it than that. 

CyberLife had been offering people trade-ins, like androids were cars, trade in for the newer shiny model today! It was bullshit, most of those traded in were not even deviants, just androids pawned off as a preventive measure. The news had passed off the theft as gang related, tied in with Red Ice, and somehow the public just glossed over it like it was nothing that twenty three androids were missing. 

So he was in a good mood when he slipped into the theater, coffee in hand and wanting to share his news, there would be a moving truck by tomorrow to drop off the androids. They were all boxed like they were dogs to kennel, but not for much longer. Made it sadly easier to transport them though, wrap some brown boxes around, some drop clothes and throw in some real supplies being delivered and it should go off without a hitch. Hank was in a damned good mood. Was his only excuse for taking so long to figure out the oppressive air in the place, empty halls and empty rooms. Trailed along worried now, but it seemed everyone that could be was squeezed into the only room with a tv, and a handfull of androids in the hall listening in. 

“Hey! What’s going on?” One of the androids turned to look at him, blinking confused a moment before giving a soft ‘oh’, “Follow me.” And went to clear a path into the room, well fine then, Hank still had to mutter as he followed because damn it he was bigger than the path made. Markus was pretty much glued to the tv with a frown, as was most of the room and Hank figured out why when he looked at the screen. ‘Terrorist Deviants Leveled Hospital’

“What the fuck?!” North’s base, which made no sense at all, that was one of the permanent bases, she had been damned proud of it and ruled it with iron fist. There was also the fact it was a functioning hospital, full of people. The news was going on about how such an attack could have possibly happened, that there had been warning so evacuation had started. Markus stood, the tv powering down remotely and the entire room changed attention to him, Hank even turned to glance at him, still in shock. It had to be an attack, it had to be, North was violent yes, but she listened to Markus, she never would have done such a thing. 

“Current report is that only two of our people were caught and gunned down, the rest are still checking in when they can. It was a direct attack by CyberLife with permission granted from the state, the building had been evacuated and bombs places. Any other news will be given as it is received. There is a party of six on their way here, please no one question them when they arrive, it is reported there are injuries and a child with them.” Markus paused, and tacked on as he looked at Hank, “And Sumo is with them.” 

Oh shit. Sumo, how had be forgot that Sumo was at the hospital, there was, had been, more room for him to run around so Hank had mostly left him there. “Shit.” It slipped from him in a soft whisper and it was not till he rubbed at his face that Hank realized his coffee had disappeared at some point, right from his hands. “Why don’t you greet the incoming arrivals Hank?” Yeah, that sounded like an idea, nodded and wrote off yet another undrank coffee, should have finished it before coming back even if that had meant lingering in public. 

Ten minutes later and Hank was grumbling to himself in an alleyway because he forgot to tell Markus about the delivery tomorrow, shit, needed to get that message to him so it would not come as a surprise. When the van pulled up he squinted at it and slipped a hand to the gun at his side, course then Aidan damn near jumping from the passenger seat made him relax again. The android had blue smeared across his face and looked ready to fight someone as he stomped over and Hank was already shaking his head. That did not stop Aidan from sneering at him, “You fucking deal with his lecturing, already have 900 motherhening me, did not need another babysitter.” And he pretty much slammed into the door to go inside, well alright then. 

Hank stepped forward as the side door to the van opened and had to smile when Sumo rushed out, all hyper energy and slobber, “Hey, there’s my good boy.” Attention turned to Sumo was why he missed 900 carefully moving around the van and pulling out a RK900 unit so that the rest of the van did not have to climb over the body. Was footsteps that made him look up, right there were others to show inside. “Welcome to the theater, if-” And he choked on his words, a bit of gibberish coming out for a second. 

“Hank.” 

He knew that voice. There was no time freezing or moment of perfect clarity, just fact that he knew the voice and knew exactly who it was. “Connor.” Fuck. The kid was just standing there, alive and ruffled but fucking alive. Stepped forward and almost tripped on Sumo but thankfully Connor stepped forward to catch him and it worked out to yank the kid into a hug. “Don’t ever do that shit again.” Connor stood far too stiff and he took a moment to return the hug but Hank did not give a shit. Aidan could be a whining bitch for the rest of time after this, because Connor was here and whole and alive. Pulled back to look at him again, there was a splatter of blue but he did not see any injuries, just Connor staring at him wide eyed and the dopiest smile ever. 

“I am sorry Hank.” He sounded it too, mournful and turned his eyes downcast like he expected to get scolded and Hank almost shook him, thought about it a moment even. “Don’t, don’t you apologize, just…. Shit son, don’t go dying again alright.” He was alive, fucking hell. Could ignore the others that went around them to go inside, that he was supposed to be showing them in and where they could get looked at. Ignored 900 totting what might as well be himself inside and Sumo following because this was what everything had been for in a way. This was why he done everything. Even if he still wanted a fucking cup of coffee.


	10. Four's a party?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 900 is still a dick but he is doing things because he can and it amuses him. Connor wants to name all the things. Hank is done with shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is plot here, if you squint. I swear. 
> 
> Laalaalaa, this is late, haha oops. Not that I have a posting schedule, but still later than I meant it to be?

**Warning; System Operating at 52%**   
**Report to nearest CyberLife facility for repair**   
**Warning; System Temperature at 102.1**   
**Report to nearest CyberLife facility for repair**   
**Warning; Main Cooling System Offline - repair time 2 hours and twenty-one minutes**   
**Warning; Back-Up Cooling System Engaged**   
**Warning; Plate 4F Misaligned - chance of contaminates**   
**Report to nearest CyberLife facility for repair**

“Normally it is Aidan that makes a mess of himself.” The amusement in those words was not highly appreciated but 900 only watched Amanda try to coax a bird closer without comment. “It is possible, however you are aware of the risks, yes?” She gave up on the bird, like she could not simply alter the code and have the bird in her hand in an instant. Instead stood and ran hands down her dress to smooth out nonexistent wrinkles. 

“I have calculated all possible outcomes,” Ignored her soft huff, “And if you want to be technically I did not damage myself.” Now she really did give a soft laugh, even if she looked surprised by her own laugh, it was a rare occurrence. She did not even have to explain to him that he could be considered responsible for the damage done to him through his own actions. Thankfully Amanda rarely bothered with the pointless explanations with him, not like the banter she took to with Aidan. 

“You still need to interface with Markus before taking the risk, so he is aware and brought into things.” It was a reminder that he did not need and 900 was sure to look downright bored at her words. “Let me know when you start the hack, I would like some warning please. And make sure Aidan is taking care of the fact he was shot, you know how he gets.” Yes, they were both aware that he had the habit of ignoring his own faults to focus on anything else instead, it was not logical at all. Aidan for that matter was rarely logical. 

900 nodded in consent and backed out of the program to refocus on the conversation going on in front of him, pointless talks of what-if and what-could-be. Turned his eyes to Markus and cut across the circle of androids standing around, ignored the annoyance or silence that his actions set off. If pressed then 900 could admit he did not like the other RK unit in general. Considered the RK200 to be too soft, to care too much about others, to be blind in areas he should not be. He failed and yet he tried much the same thing now like somehow the result would be different. There was a theory that could be a form of insanity, trying the same thing over with the hope of a different outcome. 

Held out a hand without word and was not surprised that Markus automatically reacted and took the offered hand for interface, it was an automatic response with most androids. 900 found it to be a weakness that he exploited likely more often than he should. At least with Markus he only had to try to slow the transfer to a moderate flow instead of a crawl, still slower than he wanted, slower than with Connor even. Being a RK unit Markus did not seize up, but he still flinched back when it was over, shook his hand like he was human and lost feeling in the limb. A useless action but amusing. 

“Alright, I’ll make sure no one disturbs you.” As expected Markus only picked up on the immediate action plan and not the depth of the data package that 900 sent over. Disappointing. Expected however. Left him to walk out of the meeting, nothing would get done there and if they wanted to waste their time they were welcome to. Sent out a trace and followed the closer ping back only to find Connor at a table with Anderson, both of them with heads bowed down and conversing about what had been happening. 

“I am going offline for approximately 15 minutes.” The human looked up with a jolt of surprise and a scowl but Connor blinked at him before nodding. There was hesitation like he wanted to say something so 900 waited for him to find the words while he traced the second ping down. 

“If you need help with repairs-” This was going to be another guilt driven offer of help and 900 cut it off before it could go much farther. “Unnecessary, thank you for the thought.” Connor had limited knowledge of the internal layout of a RK900 model and almost none for the coding of one, he would be more a hindrance. There was a look that 900 could not place exactly but left him expanding on his words, “When you have time look in on Aidan, he took level two damage.” And Connor seemed to lose some of his lost look with a goal in mind so 900 left him be. 

**Warning; System Temperature at 103**   
**Report to nearest CyberLife facility for repair**   
**Warning; Back-Up Cooling System Engaged**

900 stopped in a hallway to inhale only to exhale blue-tinted steam, he did not have time to look in on Aidan himself, so changed course back to where he had placed the damaged RK900 unit. Sent a sixty second warning message to Amanda only for her to send back an audio file of a sigh, that was unexpected, she needed to stop talking to Aidan so much. The RK900 was shot however the bullet had passed through and damaged no major components, self repair could patch it in less than an hour. It was the blade that passed through the back of the neck that caused deactivation, severing all connection from central processing and causing the control device plugged into the main port to short out. 

With no power it was easy to unplug the collar, as others had taken to dubbing the control device, set it aside in case it could be studied, though North had said there was an active collar for them to look at. Opened the neck panel and started the task of repairing what could be repaired, enough to keep the unit from fully activating but to start it back up in basic function. Aidan would likely complain about use of supplies for this. When boot-up started 900 paused to try to figure out if he was worried or nervous, to try to figure out the emotion that was swelling in his own system. There was no time however to sort it out, so pushed it aside and directly interfaced with the RK900 model. 

**Warning; System Damage Critical**   
**Warning; Main Central Processor Damaged**   
**Warning; Network Offline**   
**Warning; ^*()* &%$$(@**

900 ignored all the warning messages that overlapped and degraded from there, focused on main coding and felt Amanda’s attention flickering in and reaching out to nudge him in the right direction. There had been upgrades since his own creation and activation, changes in the core code, personality almost stripped out completely and new subroutes to quarantine anything that went against the programed guidelines. 900 almost felt sorry for the rest of the RK900’s, they were basically lobotomized and sent into the world to obey and never anything else. That trickle of almost heat was anger, Amanda was so helpful to point out to him and he ignored her, he knew what anger was. 

His estimation was wrong and it took him 17 minutes before he backed out of the crude hacking job and had to wonder why there was an ice pack on his head, or more exactly who had placed an ice pack on him. “While the thought is appreciated, a single ice pack is not going to do enough to impact my core temperature.” Which had him checking his core temperature as an afterthought. 

**Warning; All Secondary Systems Manually Halted**   
**Warning; System Temperature at 99.9**   
**Warning; Direct Interface Detected - suggested course of action cancel interface**

He had not turned off secondary systems so it had to be Amanda when she had surfaced enough to help with the firewalls and broken coding. She after all knew exactly what made up a RK900 unit, inside and out. 

“Uh-huh, you were steaming so pardon me for trying to help out.” This was unexpected, Anderson generally ignored or avoided him, and Connor was no in sight. Almost like he could tell that 900 was puzzled, doubtful, he continued, “Connor didn’t like that you were going offline so he asked me to look for you while he checked on the asshole.” Still unexpected to a degree but more within reason now. Sent out a trace, half to make sure they had not killed each other and mostly to let them both know he was operational again. Both pings registered only microseconds apart, and then two seconds later a third ping. 

900 turned attention back to the RK900 unit and backed out of interface, boot-up had gone smoothly and all systems were running, if not to full capacity yet. Now he was understanding why everyone kept telling him he needed a name, this might get tedious. RK900 sat up and Anderson stepped back, “What the fuck?!” Both androids looked at him and 900 honestly sighed, oh that was relaxing to a degree, started to understand why Aidan sighed so much. 

**Communication Request from RK800 - 60**   
**Communication Request Accepted**

_The. Fuck. Are. You. Doing?!_

900 almost sighed again and opened the line to RK800-52 and RK900-1241, and completely phased out the human that was doing a minor panic attack while talking to himself.

_Connor; You reactivated the RK unit?_   
_Aidan; Motherfucker I am never letting you out of my sight again!_   
_Aidan; I thought you grabbed it for parts_   
_900; I will finish repair in two hours, there is no need for replacement parts_   
_Aidan; Maybe next time tell me what the plan is_   
_Connor; Hello RK900 - 1241, do you have a registered name?_

900 felt the RK900 unit shift in surprise at being addressed and almost wanted to praise Connor on at least having manners and remembering there was another on the line. 

_Aidan; Better have a name, everyone needs to have a name_   
_Aidan; Everyone 900_   
_900; I will come up with a registered name within the next hour_   
_RK900-1241; There is no registered name in my memory file_   
_Aidan; Fucking shit_   
_Connor; I can suggest names?_

900 closed the connection, not caring what happened from there, the test was successful, 1241 was a separate operating entity. While deactivation would not work for any other android to get rid of the control collars without risk of damaging core systems and memory banks, it was a last choice option. Turned attention back to Anderson, how at least had ceased his ranting and was watching with narrowed eyes. “There is no cause for concern, thank you for your attempt of help, you can go now.” 

Watching the human throw his hands in the air and storm off was almost amusing and worth it. “That could be considered rude.” The comment from 1241 only made him hum in response, most of his processor going through names at the moment before Aidan tried to force something on him. “RK800 wishes to name me Kane.” Also had to not have Connor force a name on him, noted. “He is not pleased that I have no preference.” 

**Update Register; RK900 - 1241 registered name Kane**

“Names are important to deviated androids.” And humans, but that should go without saying, it was a case of identity, one that 900 had not cared for previously being the only self functioning RK900 system. With that now shifted he would bow down and indeed have a name chosen in the time limit offered, even if he did not have a feeling for one he would simply chose one at random. 

**Communication Request from RK800 - 60**   
**Communication Request Accepted**

_Bring me some tubing and a gag before I test if strangling works against Connor_

900 would only listen to the first part of that request, and carefully stood, only now pulling the ice pack off his head and dropping it to the side. Internal temperature was at 98.8, within acceptable parameters, it would likely rise in action but he would keep movement limited. “Kane, would you mind getting a few bottles of thurium from the miniature fridge there.” Might as well drag him along, 900 could still see the open communication line between the three of them ongoing. Had to shift some piles of random things before finding a repair kit and Kane simply trailed out of the room, movements slow and careful. 

Oh, likely should have given warning to others that there was another RK900 unit operational, more so since Kane was in CyberLife uniform, better than swat gear but still would be alarming. Started an open communication line, hacking into the closed network without so much of a pause. _’RK900-1241, registered name Kane, is operational on base, please desist from violence against him, thank you._ And calmly closed the connection under the onslaught of surprise. Maybe he was picking up too many things from Aidan as well, he would have to look into that, later though.


	11. Assholes and Compliments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kane can be a bigger dick than 900, Connor can be the knight in shinny armor, and Aidan just wants to stab and/or shake everyone.

Of all the shit to pull. Aidan stared at whatever his name was, Connor named it something, fuck if he was paying enough attention, was bitching too much about the fact it was even around. Him. It. Whatever. Guess it was a he now if he was aware. It should not be bothersome that the new guy looked exactly like 900, they were just the same model, nothing more. “You have the incorrect optical components for a RK800 model.” And that pretty much decided it for Aidan, he did not like the new guy. “RK900 optics should not be compatible with your system.” He sounded like he was trying to he so helpful or some shit. 900 reengaged flow tube and Aidan tried to not jerk from the rush while he debated even trying to answer. “Several of your components are-” 

“Enough.” 

Aidan had been about to snap, he had, he did not need a lecture from the new kid, did not need someone pointing out how much of a fuck up he was. That it was Connor instead that snapped was surprising and even 900 turned enough to glance at him with a single raised brow. It made Connor fidget and duck his head, “What are we going to do now?” That topic change was not smooth at all and Aidan had to snort, yeah Connor had totally figured out where some of his parts came from. Shit. Well unless it was outright asked he was not admitting to a damned thing, nope, so moving on. 

“Well Anderson got a delivery of androids set for tomorrow, I bet Markus would be willing to see how exactly you convert since it is all weird and stuff. There is apparently a working collar somewhere for us to poke at, and now we can poke at the newbie.” Though likely 900 could fill in everything on the second part, really Adian did not want to talk to the asshole, he kept staring, judging as he traced over the mismatch of bio components that made up Adain anymore. “Likely should be asking oh wise leader though.” Likely Markus would have something more of a plan anyway. 

900 still had a while to finish self-repair, and Aidan would have to take it easy for much the same reason, this seemed like a great time to just take it easy for a bit. For a rare time even. Hell he was not even sure he knew how to sit still anymore but he was willing to try, even Amanda was being oddly quiet. Needed to check on her soon. 

“I have a plan for myself.” The asshole spoke up, maybe should find out his name, and Adian narrowed his eyes because what? 900 pulled back and slid the access panel closed before contributing to the conversation. 

“Kane has discussed an idea that should be fruitful if it works, he will being leaving tonight.” 

On one hand, knew the guy’s name now and he would be leaving, on the other hand, “What the fuck idea is this?” Anytime 900 got sneaky it meant bad things, it just did, it was like a fact of existence, sneaky 900 meant bad things. Even Connor looked worried, then again he just seemed to care too much about anyone, would have thought he learned better already. 

“I hardly see why it is any concern of yours.” Cold words and Adian went to stand, a flash of anger making him snarl only to have 900 push him back down, a steady hand on his shoulder and that only let Kane continue. “You should be decommissioned before you become a danger to those around you.” 

Aidan shoved 900 off and surged forward, not making it far but still lashing out and missing just by an inch before he was yanked back. “I’ll show you what danger I can fucking be!” Hissed words and it was only 900 pulling him back and pinning his arm down that kept him from sliding a dagger out. Connor had moved however and was dragging the asshole out of the room, saying something but Aidan cared more about trying to get free to smash in Kane’s face. 

“Aidan.” For the most part ignored the warning tone but at least pulled back for the opposite side of the room, grumbling curses as he grabbed his shirt off a stack of crates to yank on. “Adian.” A more exasperated tone this time and so he spun to glare. “What?” Had not expected 900 to look almost guilty and maybe a bit lost, had figured he would just be disappointed that Adian just tried to remurder Kane. 

“He is building a personality matrix off what he can, protocols and what his analysis program might tell him.” That did not make it any better at all, simply meant anyone with half a brain could tell he was broken and unhinged, which was just great, really. 

Aidan tried to not fidget, it was not his habit at all but Connor’s left over from old memory uploads, instead crossed his arms over his chest. “So what, you think I’m a danger?” After he was a RK900 unit, had the same programs and shit. The utter unimpressed look leveled at him made him stare right back till 900 outright rolled his eyes. 

“Yes, however I consider that a boon instead of a detriment.” Even words that left no room for argument and Aidan shifted before looking away with a huff. Alright fine, he could accept that he supposed, really he had to at this point, 900 could have left at any point and instead stuck around for whatever reason.

“Your evil twin is an asshole.” Muttered the words but that was all he had to say on that, at least he was apparently leaving, and at this point Aidan gave no shits where the asshole went. Almost missed 900 nodding his head like he agreed, almost, but caught it and had to give up and just smile because hey at least the were united on that, the rest of the RK900 units were assholes, it was decided. 

Was a moment later that Connor came back into the room, rubbing his jaw with skin patched out and Aidan narrowed his eyes, next time he saw Kane he was stabbing him, simple as that. “I do not think I like Kane in person very much.” And it was amusing how very confused Connor sounded on that, Aidan still scoffed and shook his head though. “Not sure how well he will do trying to blend in with the undeviated RK900 units, but he seems very determined.” 

“What?” Was everyone else getting filled in on things except him? Seriously? This was just frustrating at this point, plopped down on a crate and really missed the hospital for a moment with it’s too many halls and rooms. He had a regular room there, change of clothes and did not have to go sitting on crates. Ug. Stupid CyberLife having to mess up things. 

Connor ended up following suit and sitting down but on the dusty ground, “He is hoping to scramble serial numbers with another unit and step into their role. Apparently he wants to get into the DPD so he can have a direct line to information there.” A shrug and Aidan slumped because that sounded like suicidal bullshit but really whatever, would still get the asshole out of his hair. “You changed your eyes.” Softer words and Aidan blinked at him a moment, trying to figure out the meaning because really was this linking back to him having the wrong eyes? 

There was a sigh from 900, “Color, Aidan, the color, you took my advice.” Oh, right, that, shrugged suddenly self conscious on the matter, it made sense, he might as well since he could, and with Connor around. Something else to set them apart, something that could be his. Hazel just seemed like the easiest course of action, kept the brown and mixed in green, it was odd that hazel was pretty much something that CyberLife had avoided for eye color. Like hazel was not perfect enough for their tastes or some bullshit. 

“I like them.” The utter sincerity in that statement was baffling really and Aidan blinked at Connor before deciding he was not touching that comment with a ten foot pole. Nope. Moving on then! 900 needed to sit down and stay down till he stopped overheating, Aidan could use some time to mop himself up and be more put together even. Somehow only Connor had come out of things unruffled and without damage. They had till tomorrow for things to get moving again, this was a nice moment to just lull for a bit. Likely would not be long till someone came to annoy them, was surprised that Markus had not turned up already, or Anderson to follow on Connor’s heels. Left Aidan huffing a sigh and debating options. 

“I need to enter stasis.” 900 spoke up and hey that would keep him down and still for a bit, and he could annoy Amanda, sounded like a great plan. Wait, waaaaaaaaait. Aidan stared at 900 hard enough the other android in fact glanced up to catch his eyes with a single raised brow. “Did you give the asshole access to the garden?” Because if he had to see, much less deal with, Kane in his own head space he was going to find out if murder was possible in the zen garden. Then again that might be therapeutic, could he talk Amanda into being backup for that? She mostly seemed fond of him after all, hopefully she would side with him over random asshole. 

The look that 900 leveled was a hard no to the point he did not even vocalize an answer, just let his face fall flat and gave this little put-upon sigh before closing his eyes and slipping into stasis. But Aidan was the dramatic one, okay, sure. They were going with that lie. Aidan rolled his eyes but was glad he would not have to in fact deal with Kane again, hopefully ever again honestly. His patience for assholes was nonexistent, funny that, much less dealing with an RK900 unit that wanted to call him dysfunctional, after Aidan had taken him down once already. 

“I can go talk to Markus about tomorrow.” Connor offered softly, carefully even, and when Aidan cut him a glare Connor had the grace to look almost sheepish. “I would like a chance to catch up some of what I have missed.” Right, right, he was missing time and shit, any maybe Connor was friends with the other RK unit. Aidan had not been terribly useful as far as information went, 900 was better at that, when he wanted to be anyway. Connor stood and took the time to dust his pants off like that was going to help at all, hesitating for a reason, “Kane’s wrong, he had no right to say that to you, but he is wrong.” 

Aidan stared at him a moment, not exactly sure why Connor of all people was here trying to make him feel better, Connor had to have clear memories that Aidan was an asshole, right? There had been that whole tower bullshit before that would only seem like days ago for Connor, and he had not exactly been trying to improve relations since then. “You care too damned much about people.” Just to point out, because it needed said more often, but Connor only shrugged and smiled before slipping out of the room. Maybe Aidan was just surrounded by crazy people, or it ran in RK models, that would explain so many things really. 

Still he sighed and shuffled his crate over to a wall to lean against it, in clear line of the door and 900, there was nothing else to do for the moment. It would be best to take the time for them to get back up to one hundred percent before anything else happened. Later he could shake 900 for the stupid idea of rebooting an RK900 unit, or at least not giving warning of the plan, maybe growl at Amanda for it too, no way she had not helped. Later though, later was fine enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No I did not forget about this story, I just.... got distracted for a while and then got hit with muse for it randomly. So this should be back to updating almost regularly, maybe? 
> 
> Trying so hard to not lean into random flirting between the three idiots, mostly failing, oops.


End file.
